One Earth, One Life

by Darrell Petska

Even to zoos come wars:
blaring sirens, bursting bombs,
bullets and shells that savage
the woven fabric of life—

Kiyv’s western gorilla, Tony, is depressed,
Horace the Asian elephant must be sedated,
Juto the giraffe has lost his appetite,
Christina the Asian lion is a bundle of nerves
and baby lemur Bayraktar must be hand fed
because his mother deserted him.

Fear, stress, loneliness—
provoking the pelicans to destroy their eggs,
the zebras to crash their fences,
and the remaining 4,000 innocents to endure
food shortage, daily disruptions of living
and the constant, debilitating awareness

of war’s clangor
tearing from Earth breath-filled throats
that trumpet, roar, and bray their right
to exist beside their human compatriots.