The pull of the Earth

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In one news reel, a monkey
seen through squares
of a metal cage
backed into its edges
hisses and reaches
as blue paint sprays and engulfs its
body
A man saunters around the cage,
one hand in his pants pocket
one fleshy palm wrapped around the
can's cool metal
finger on the nozzle,
spraying
'If convicted of animal cruelty',
the reader is informed,
the man whose finger was on
the nozzle
whose fleshy palm was wrapped around
the can
whose hand was in
his pocket
may pay a fine, be imprisoned, or
both.
In a second reel,
a child's
silhouette moves
from right
to left
past two
squares once
windows of
a school,
turned shelter
turned cage.
Behind her
orange flames
rage
'Young girl tries to escape
a blazing fire',
the caption reads,
'after occupation forces
bombed
Al-Jarjawi School in
Gaza'
Sauntering
around buildings turned concrete cages
spraying
bombs and bullets at bodies backed into
edges
The reader is not informed,
if this is cruetly
if the forces whose finger was on
the trigger
whose fleshy palm was wrapped
around ammunition
whose hand was in
his pocket
will be
stopped.
But the reader needs not be informed
for she knows
as a 60-day-old Willow Warbler knows
in its blood and feathers
to fly South, over 12000 kilometers
guided by stars,
the sun
and the pull of
the Earth.
Knows