Guy the Gorilla, R.I.P.
Guy was a good gorilla,
Huge and strong and proud
His chest-pounding was magnificent,
His roar extremely loud…
By day they’d roam the forest,
The wives, the kids and he
And all about was verdant,
Green and pure and free
At night they’d curl up in the tree-top
In beds made of the leafy wands
Of the thinner topmost branches,
By Guy’s strong and clever hands
He’d eat nothing but the best fruit,
Laid by his children at his feet
And occasionally a lemur
When he felt he needed meat…
At the waterhole Guy feared nothing,
Neither ape nor beast nor lion…
Even the mighty crocodile
Wouldn’t even think of trying…
’Twas both dangerous and futile,
However hungry he may be
To stalk Guy or his family members
For breakfast, lunch or tea!
Then one day some men came
And with the great white hunter’s art
Put a limit to Guy’s freedom
With a hypodermic dart
Steel cages now surrounded him
So there was nothing he could do
When they trucked him to the coast
And shipped him off to London Zoo
Strange though ’tis to relate,
‘Twas there in London Zoo
Guy gained a greater reputation;
His fame just grew and grew
For in his red-brick-walled enclosure,
With its cold, hard, concrete floor
He’d cause women serious discomposure
When he’d ‘take himself in paw’
They came from far and near to see it,
Old ladies Guy would mesmerise
Yet they came in droves to see him
And could not believe their eyes
For with nothing else to do
In his small and lonely concrete tank
He’d watch the old ladies watching him,
And as he watched, he’d wank
For those who’d planned his captivity
Had not the wit to see
Gorillas need some kind of activity
And some female company:
But with nothing else to occupy him
And no way to protest, too
Guy did the only thing he could,
While living there in London Zoo…
By …. Theseustoo
I feel I must add that the living conditions and treatment of animals in London Zoo has come a long way since those days!
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
I find such treatment of animals to be quite shocking too, VoR… couldn’t agree more! But Zoo philosophy worldwide has, generally speaking, come a long way from when animals were kept in small cages and regarded merely as ‘exhibits’… this was a side effect of the Victorian era’s scientism and its urge to collect specimens; zoos were merely collections of live specimens.
Mercifully, we understand a bit better these days that even animals have feelings and can understand differences in life-quality.
🙂
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Hehehehe… for those who hadn’t already guessed, I opened my ‘WordPress’ account with a different username, didn’t I?
I think I need to head on over there now and change it back to my usual moniker, or perhaps just ‘Theseus’… but the name ‘Astyages’ has given me an idea for my next few contributions; a series of stories from ancient Mesopotamia, perhaps, based on the histories of Herodotus… and inspired by some of atomou’s latest posts! Starting with a very brief overview of the Median Empire, perhaps.
But let me change my nickname back to Theseus, first! Or no-one will recognize me in this disguise… mind you this Median gear is really cool, but it doesn’t look right without a beard…
Atomou, prepare yourself for a real treat!
🙂
🙂
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I once went to a strip club in Media but the performances were only middling.
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Hi T2. 🙂
I was a bit shocked only a few years ago that in France they still had parks with bears in small cement floored enclosures.
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Looking at the suburban wilderness, I think there must be fates worse than Guy the Gorilla’s, many a lonely person tucked away in the bowels of the ‘burbs; no visitors, no friends knocking on the door…
Sometimes even passing away, only to be discovered weeks or months later…
At least Guy had visitors; people paid to see him and they brought their giggling kids and grandmas with (poor eyesight) with them!
Dear old grandma could not understand why the little ones laughed so much…
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H, the Chasers once did a skit apropos of a run of old people being found dead and decaying in the units after long periods obviously left alone. Chas knocked on doors and asked the occupants if they were dead. Then sometimes he came back in five minutes “Just checking”. Funny, but a worry just the same…..
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…not dead, just deaf…
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Very astute, H, to have spotted that the inner meaning of my poem was a comment on alienation… Now, would you like a pint of trotters, or one of those pink things with the umbrellas in them?
🙂
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Gooord, that guy in picture looks disturbingly familiar!
I think he’s got an identical twin running around in Melbourne. I’m sure I taught him in some class or other… Banana Peeling? Peanut chucking? Tree Dancing? I can’t remember which class but I’m sure it was him -or his twin!
Zoos are good for endangered species and as animal hospitals but I don’t know if it is ethical to build them for human education purposes. I’d hate to be treated as a specimen of humans for aliens to gawk over. Imagine all the wrong ideas they’d get about the human race!
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Well that bought back memories.
………………..Noooh…..Of the story. Wallys!
Surely you could have used a more polite word than wank?
I mean wank is such a shit of a word.
The High Definition camera in The Test cricket blimp showed some shots of Regent’s Park Zoo (London Zoo), when it panned around last week. And one could see that the animal enclosures were modern and spacious.
Now whether zoos should exist is another story, because on the one hand the animal are in captivity, but there is (or was) a good argument for citylocked folks learning about Nature.
Perhaps now with HDTV and internet video cams, there is an argument for turning zoos into electronic libraries– as they have done in so many museums now??
Good poem T2. The 1st thing that I have read–as I have been off line for a few days.
Gonna read Womble next.
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Apologies for the crudity of that word, Jayell, but it’s the only one I could find which both rhymed and scanned…
🙂
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What a fortuitous change of nic, theseus!
I have just sent Mike the story of Paris, so similar to that of Astyages and his nightmares and daughter, Mandane!
Damned near oracular that!
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Atomou, this looks like I”m replying to myself, but it’s really to you, because you didn’t have a ‘reply’ button on your post…
Anyway… talk about oracular! I’ve just posted my proposal to submit that very story; about Mandane and her famous son, Cyrus the Great! But introduced, of course, with a brief overview of the Median Empire…
Hang onto your socks, old boy! And don’t forget to put on your reading jammies!
:)))
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Delightful stuff! Then folks can compare and contrast the stories of the unwanted children… not forgetting of course, that Oedipus was of them also…
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You like the new nickname, atomou? Then maybe I’ll stick with it for a little while; perhaps until I’ve finished telling everyone the wonderful stories of Cyrus… (Hehehehe… that’ll give me plenty of time to figure out how to change it back to Theseus, too!)
And I wonder if I might pick your brains a little about some discrepancies between Herodotus and Xenophon, perticularly with regard to the order of monarchical descent in the Median Empire…
🙂
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There’s a statue of Cyrus near the bike track from the Bison Terrier Park into the Olympic precinct – apart from being a traffic hazard, I gather There’s a Persian story in the offing.
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Yes, I think it’s a great name. Historical and quite significant, so, personally, I wouldn’t rush to change it.
I’m not a specialist on Xenophon -it’s being a long time since I’ve read him- but I’ll do my best. email me your questions, Asty!
Incidentally, the name in its original (Iranian) means shakespeare (shaker and hurdler of spears) but in Greek it may be read as “leader of cities.” (“asty-=city, Ages=leader)
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