& yet it’s true, I watched you, & I’m sorry for staring as I did, it’s just that you somehow managed to look at once elegant & weary, I mean each of you sitting so still with your legs tucked beneath your body, & then your sleepy eyes. I mean, the four of you were like a quartet of elderly duchesses. (I’m sorry, later I looked you up on the zoo website & found out you were all males.) I’m sorry, I meant for this to be an ode, a love letter, & it is, I swear, but the ways you’d been treated—I knew I couldn’t, on top of all that, lie to you. I didn’t intend to meet you & you yourselves were
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