Bronx Zoo Cages

da sein · 05-23-2005, 01:21 PM

My father lived
Burt red tenement fronts
Zigzagged with
Spider web clothes lines
Hung with stained, torn and moth eaten garments

Seven floors with no elevator
Enter the thinly partitioned apartment
With connected kitchen and living space
Two bedrooms for five people,
A life of sacrifice
Beginning with a family friend’s advice
Get the hell out of Hungary before Hitler gets here.

Learn English
Work American
Eat American
Run through alleyways with
Irish, Italian, Polish
Faces flushed and dusty
All belting Bronx cheers
And flipping garbage cans on their heads

Learn to fight
Learn to run
Learn to fight for every small comfort
Hope to one day escape
From a wind born existence,
Worn and chaffed raw by the winds of change

Build as you run, climbing
Brick staircases
To comfort clouds of stylized life
Inside an American hot house
Inside a crucible of intent
Build fleece lined cages
For sweet childish faces
Bearing you

Children with your eyes
Nose or some appendage
Bearing your code

My father lived
Hope to save and elevate his seed
Beyond Bronx zoo cages
Beyond skyward races
Starvation or displacement

My father’s life
Embodies a valiance
I see as lacking
In my generation
Of caged faces

screamer · 05-23-2005, 02:45 PM

Oh shit!!! Do you know about OTA Benga???? Those bastards took this poor pigmy and put him in a cage with a chimpanzee (like in the early 19th cent. fucking eugenisists and anthro majors). his cage i think is either the lion or the bird house at the bronx zooo now days. They said he was "retarded" but he was smart enough to grab a gun and blow his fuckin brains out,,, poor soul. if you DONT know about ota benga , its a coincidence that your using this metaphor, I though it was well used.

Yeah my grammy grew up in harlemand was fortunate enough to get the fuck out of there. you seem well read , but that aint enough to be mobile nowadays

da sein · 05-23-2005, 02:58 PM

yea...ota benga case is some sad shit...same as joeseph merick or the yaqui from ringling bros...

im an anthro major so that shit right up my alley

well read ....and mobile...planning some hitchhiking this summer and shit...cross the country...why not

screamer · 05-23-2005, 05:26 PM

Modern anthro maj. learn about Ota benga and other "freak" history?????? Weird. anthroplogists hunted down these poor folk for freak display. usually disiplines do not like to discuss their own historical diseasees. I dropp out of school a few years a go, partly beacuse of this. (not an athro maj. howver, its all about the BS attached to the poli-sci).

da sein · 05-24-2005, 01:28 PM

scientific ethics is still highly debated but the usury of native peoples in the name of "anthropology" by people who werent anthropologists to begin with is now widely seen as a drak chapter but when you think how cultural anthro. used to be a fledgling "European" pseudo science and is now most widely practiced by non-whites in other contries in conjucntion with urban/ rural planning and sociological/economical secotrs....its clear that the attrocities such as what befell Ota are not now prolifferated as such...but

i actually am writing my thesis on Ethical Continuity in regards to the Yanomamo case studies which started in the 60's and...theres some pretty fucked up shit iabout those although it was the missionaries that really did damage to Papa New Guienea ...
ie: giving them shotguns....promoting the brazilian gold rush...

---yea its hard to stay in the academic system...you have to sort through alot of bullshit...and idiots

~Eloquent · 05-24-2005, 04:49 PM

man i felt this was a great display of someone coming from virtually nowhere
so inspired by the sweetness of life that they never knew...
clever tiltle almost like pointing out the animal in man...
i really enjoyed this one this was great....

Mind~$oul · 05-28-2005, 04:36 PM

This was a hearfelt story here. First time I've seen anything like this in the realm. Always good to see something different. My grandparents are from New York and came down to Memphis the year I was born. They always talked about how it was hard to adjust to the southern ways. I can only imagine how hard it is coming from another country. Great work

One luv

05-23-2005, 01:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
da sein feel influence Join Date: May 2005 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 48	Bronx Zoo Cages My father lived Burt red tenement fronts Zigzagged with Spider web clothes lines Hung with stained, torn and moth eaten garments Seven floors with no elevator Enter the thinly partitioned apartment With connected kitchen and living space Two bedrooms for five people, A life of sacrifice Beginning with a family friend’s advice Get the hell out of Hungary before Hitler gets here. Learn English Work American Eat American Run through alleyways with Irish, Italian, Polish Faces flushed and dusty All belting Bronx cheers And flipping garbage cans on their heads Learn to fight Learn to run Learn to fight for every small comfort Hope to one day escape From a wind born existence, Worn and chaffed raw by the winds of change Build as you run, climbing Brick staircases To comfort clouds of stylized life Inside an American hot house Inside a crucible of intent Build fleece lined cages For sweet childish faces Bearing you Children with your eyes Nose or some appendage Bearing your code My father lived Hope to save and elevate his seed Beyond Bronx zoo cages Beyond skyward races Starvation or displacement My father’s life Embodies a valiance I see as lacking In my generation Of caged faces

05-28-2005, 04:36 PM	#7 (permalink)
Mind~$oul I'm Pretty Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: North Memphis BITCH! Posts: 17,145	This was a hearfelt story here. First time I've seen anything like this in the realm. Always good to see something different. My grandparents are from New York and came down to Memphis the year I was born. They always talked about how it was hard to adjust to the southern ways. I can only imagine how hard it is coming from another country. Great work One luv __________________ "Everybody wanna be a nicca, but don't nobody wanna be a nicca"-Paul Mooney "I tried to live right, but society aint made for niccas to live right"-Joe Budden

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05-23-2005, 02:45 PM	#2 (permalink)
screamer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 182	Oh shit!!! Do you know about OTA Benga???? Those bastards took this poor pigmy and put him in a cage with a chimpanzee (like in the early 19th cent. fucking eugenisists and anthro majors). his cage i think is either the lion or the bird house at the bronx zooo now days. They said he was "retarded" but he was smart enough to grab a gun and blow his fuckin brains out,,, poor soul. if you DONT know about ota benga , its a coincidence that your using this metaphor, I though it was well used. Yeah my grammy grew up in harlemand was fortunate enough to get the fuck out of there. you seem well read , but that aint enough to be mobile nowadays

05-23-2005, 02:58 PM	#3 (permalink)
da sein feel influence Join Date: May 2005 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 48	yea...ota benga case is some sad shit...same as joeseph merick or the yaqui from ringling bros... im an anthro major so that shit right up my alley well read ....and mobile...planning some hitchhiking this summer and shit...cross the country...why not

05-23-2005, 05:26 PM	#4 (permalink)
screamer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 182	Modern anthro maj. learn about Ota benga and other "freak" history?????? Weird. anthroplogists hunted down these poor folk for freak display. usually disiplines do not like to discuss their own historical diseasees. I dropp out of school a few years a go, partly beacuse of this. (not an athro maj. howver, its all about the BS attached to the poli-sci).

05-24-2005, 01:28 PM	#5 (permalink)
da sein feel influence Join Date: May 2005 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 48	scientific ethics is still highly debated but the usury of native peoples in the name of "anthropology" by people who werent anthropologists to begin with is now widely seen as a drak chapter but when you think how cultural anthro. used to be a fledgling "European" pseudo science and is now most widely practiced by non-whites in other contries in conjucntion with urban/ rural planning and sociological/economical secotrs....its clear that the attrocities such as what befell Ota are not now prolifferated as such...but i actually am writing my thesis on Ethical Continuity in regards to the Yanomamo case studies which started in the 60's and...theres some pretty fucked up shit iabout those although it was the missionaries that really did damage to Papa New Guienea ... ie: giving them shotguns....promoting the brazilian gold rush... ---yea its hard to stay in the academic system...you have to sort through alot of bullshit...and idiots

05-24-2005, 04:49 PM	#6 (permalink)
~Eloquent Cold Logic Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: trapped where i cant leave,Florida Posts: 3,825	man i felt this was a great display of someone coming from virtually nowhere so inspired by the sweetness of life that they never knew... clever tiltle almost like pointing out the animal in man... i really enjoyed this one this was great....

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