Listen to Mandrill (1min) and/or read it below. Photo by Meg.
I took my eldest
Zephyr
to Melbourne
Zoo
when he was
five
he was the
wildest
of them
all
Now in
Chengdu with
Blackwood, 11
his first zoo
our only tourist
caper in
China –
beholding panda
pacing concrete
floor
I’m against
the glass
against
these incarcerations
and there you
come
with your
interest
in my
beard
You ask me
seek me
my heart moves
towards your
sweetness
my eyes fill
and you ask me
not to pity you
and you jump at my face
at the glass
This brief
connection
sacred country
our heart
breath
eye
combined
my eldest in prison too –
more punishment
of the wild
Thank you for your poem It reminds me of my first visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney with your parents when i was 11. Although I loved the animals i was deeply saddened by their concrete prison. However the Zoo has improved out of sight since then.
Thanks for sharing this Lynda. ❤️
So moving, to tears. Thank you for your raw brave heart!
Thanks Purdy 🙏🏽
Beautiful brother Wren and much love to Zephyr.
I feel I’d like to visit the lad and connect. Is he in Barwon or Margoneet by chance?
Thanks Mark 🙏🏽 We’ll message you.
Thank you again Patrick for sharing your insights and sensitivity
to the plights and bewilderment that many beings find themselves in.
Thanks Belinda ❤️
Too hard to bear. I hear you, Patrick.
Thanks Dianne ❤️
Beautiful. So true.
🙏🏽
I find myself speechless and in tears. Much love to you Patrick and all your family.
And much love to you Kate and all your kin.
PJ The Poet! Lovely and moving
Thanks Tim!
Stunning last stanza, Patrick. Beautiful pacing. Superb economy. My eyes fill too. Thanks.
Thanks Shane 🙏🏽
Beautiful
Thanks brother ❤️
Our hearts break to hear that Zephyr didn’t find his way back, after getting lost some years back. We remember the bright young man, so full of promise, who stopped overnight with us when you were all heading home after cycling to Qld.
Thanks for your love Jenni and Dale, Zeph is still full of promise. He will be out by the end of the year, and we feel he will close that chapter of his life, learn from it, and use the gifts from the underworld of prison to bring goodly things into the world.
‘You ask me not to pity you’ the mandrill implored. … Instead, the invitation was: ‘just be with me, see me’. That’s what you did. That’s why you connected so deeply!
That’s probably what Zephyr needs the most too.
Yes. Thanks for seeing this, Jose. 🙏🏽
Thank you Patrick for sharing this poem and please remember brother, we are good at listening and hearing the narrative, your story is ours….
Thanks J-M 🙏🏽
thanks patrick. sad but so beautiful
Thanks Oliver!
Thank you Patrick. So moving. So hard to bear witness to. I appreciate you finding some words where many can’t.
Thanks Sieta ❤️
Awesome
Thanks brother!
Heart-achingly beautiful. Thank you. Mostly my heart sings, imagining you all on your journey…
Thanks Kate 🙏🏽
I love your words and I see your heart felt humanity and I sincerely ask , how do you come to terms with eating animals who are similarly, or even worse, tortured ?
Thank you so much for your comment, Susan. Your question is easy for us to answer:
We have evolved as a species to eat flora, fungi and fauna, which gives us health and vital nutrition. We rarely meet a healthy vegan, though some bodies can handle it better than others. We don’t normally eat what we call sad meat (abattoir killed), and take responsibility for the killing of animals we consume at home, though we have made an exception on our travels.
As farmers of goats sheep and chickens, and hunters of rabbits, we know firsthand that we can both love and kill an animal.
We know this sounds contradictory, especially to affluent peoples in rich countries estranged from their food (not saying this is you), and impossible to understand for those who have not experience ecological participation or ecological killing (one on one predation). We don’t expect common ground on this issue, but thank you for the opportunity to clarify further from our lens.
Put another way, as creatures of place, as animals ourselves, we don’t want to harm our animal selves by not eating specific to our species’ needs.
Additionally, Patrick dedicated a whole chapter to accountable killing in his doctorate, if you are interested in more details:
https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws%3A28032
Very strong poem, Patrick. Fill my eyes… as a father and as human as well. The analogy of two hominids reminds me of a book of Daniel Quinn, Ismael, that I highly recommend. Wish you and Zephyr the best when he came out. I’ve been out for vacations without digital connection, so I’m back again for the updates and follow your’s beautiful journey. I wish you guys the best.
Thank you Tiago. Yes, we’ve read Ismael. Thank you for you well wishes for Zephyr. It is appreciated.
Here’s a very overdue reply to your beautifully felt, beautifully expressed poem, Patrick: I’ve known you, as a man and as a father, for a long time; you’re a beautiful example of both. Regardless of the our occasional differences of opinion, i go on feeling grateful for your honesty and your generosity. There are so many cages in this world; I bless the cage-breakers every one.
Oh Toby, thanks for your heart-felt comment, brother. Yes, bless the cage-breakers, every one!