David X Novak
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Unsportsmanlike Conduct

7/30/2015

 
Ruminations surrounding the killing of a lion named Cecil of the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe illegally shot to death by Walter James Palmer, an American dentist, on 1 July 2015.

Is that what people who have money do
For recreation—kill things? If so I've
Good reason to be happy to eschew
Such wealth: to honor life and what's alive.

"It's what I like to do," so quoth the hunter,
"But I don't talk about it, realizing
The matter so divisive—to be blunter
Might subject me to conscience-scrutinizing.

"Ergo I say, 'I took' the animal,
Instead of 'foully slew' him—with hired hands
Tricking him from protected lairs withal,
Tormenting him within his native lands.

"America my home, employment dental,
Africa place to play—and kill the gentle."


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