Somehow, the Israeli
Army thinks that
monkeys in cages
are a threat
to their security, that
someone might find out
that one is
a cousin to Ariel Sharon,
or that the poison Viper
is a brother to Gissin, or
that the Jaguar prowling
is a father of Olmert--
there has to be something
about these relationships
the Israelis and their
bulldozers and tanks
were worried about--
otherwise,
why would they attack a zoo

Just yesterday, the tank
came forward, firing round
after round, the Cockatoos
screeched, the Macaws went
wild in their cages, screen wire
smithering into thousands of
shreds of death, piercing
the 2 am night air
sending the Raccoon
into panic as his leg
sliced open, and the
Monkey's arm went limp
with the crunch of his tree,
hundreds of Parrots were
caught in a large net
and whisked away in the cab
of a bulldozer, while another
tank shell shattered the
night air, killing 2 children,
Ali and Leila, then caving the
roof of the keeper's workshed,
where Mohammad Juma had
worked for months
creating a zoo
for the children of Rafah, the
only recreation
in this nightmare
of Israeli torture and destruction,
where children weren't allowed
to go out
for fear of Israeli snipers,
where old lady Khamis, in her 60's, but
some say, 70's, you know how
vain women are--tried to stay
in her house, but the bulldozer
reminded her of Rachel Corrie
and finally her daughter dragged
her, screaming from the
falling wall that coverd them both with
cuts and dust, shattering
memories, creating new
nightmares

in the meantime, George Bush
sat in his evening meal, talking
with Laura about their twins, graduating
from college this month, talking about
the recent White House Easter Egg Roll
they'd sponsored, "for the underprivileged kids, " and some from Congressional
members, and talked about what they
should reward their daughters with
as a present, for their graduation--

they reach down, pet
their dog, I can't remember his
name, all American presidents
have dogs, it shows their love
for animals--even at the time of
day Rafah was continuing to be
shelled, where the water pipes were
being torn out by other
bulldozers, Gissin was talking about
those water pipes hiding "tunnels
to smuggle arms from Egypt,"
Sharon was finishing off his
last two strips of bacon, while
his Rabbi kept telling him about
how different his zionism was
from Judaism, and Olmert was
thinking of inviting Dick Cheney
back to see how they'd dealt with
those terrorists in Rafah, to
show them how he'd deal with
Baghdad, Najaf and Kerbala--
he'd put in a call to
Paul Wolfowitz, he knew Paul
would call Dick for him--they
always came through

and the two twisted children

lay in one another's arms, tight

with fear, tightly bound--until,

suddenly

without breath

The fox has run off, Jumah says,
but no one has any idea where--probably
dug in behind an old shell hole, shivering
from the shaking ground
as the tank grinds up the last of the
bird enclosures--the bulldozer grabs
and grabs and grabs, pushing
the entire scraps
of the defunct zoo
into the swimming pool

In the cabinet meeting
the next day, Rumsfeld
says thatIsrael knows how
to deal with the Palestinians,
that America should hire more
of the former Mossad men, that
those he'd brought in for Guantanamo
and in Iraq had known what to do--
that they know how to win, and
maybe hire more of the retired
Israeli generals--like the one's
who destroyed parts of Bethlehem,
who'd known how to hit the churches
and call the shells "accidents"--
he says, "We could do the same
thing in Najaf to the mosques..."

and the Macaws cry out
mournfully, covering the
wailing of the women, the
sobbing of the children, the
rage and frustration of Juma
as he picks up what is left
of the sign that says,
"Welcome to Rafah,
Welcome to our Zoo"

Sam Hamod has published 10 books of poems; was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; grad of the Writer's Workshop of the U. of Iowa; shamod@cox.net