Madagascar

I’m watching Madagascar 

with the boys—hilarious 

hip city zoo animals end up 

in Africa but long to come 

home to the Central Park Zoo.  

With the emergence of zoos, 

pet keeping and animal toys, 

John Berger explains that animals

were slowly disappearing from 

our daily lives. When the boys 

take a bath, Luke stretches his 

long young thin body under 

the warm water and we play 

with little action figures 

and plastic frogs. Then I put 

my feet into the tub, singing 

row row row your boat gently 

down the stream. Later 

it’s raining and we’re together 

under an umbrella, walking 

through the park. Surely, 

radioactive ocean water 

from the Fukushima Daiichi 

nuclear plant will migrate 

around the globe and even if we 

don’t die this year, we will 

all die eventually, so for now, 

let’s hold each other loosely.