TO THE CREEPS WHO KEPT GUS THE POLAR BEAR IN CAPTIVITY
and then wondered why he would
obsessively swim twelve hours a day
seven days a week.
and then joke about Gus being
“neurotic like other New Yorkers.”
and have no understanding that
the bear was swimming for his life.
was swimming to get away from
the hell they’d trapped him in.
was swimming to enter another
world, away from the hell of tall
buildings and noise and crowds
and humans who would gawk at
him through thick glass panes.