Best Loved of Africa

By Margaret Danner
It is New Year’s day.
The blasé people rise.
They face a sleet-like ray
Of light. The low slung skies
Send shadows down. It’s dark.

The earth is treacherous to the tread.
And deep in the upstairs bedroom
Of his terraced suite in Lincoln Park
Lies Bushman, best loved of Africa, huge
And beautifully black as he ever was, but dead.

Notes:

Bushman (c. 1928–January 1, 1951) was a Western Lowland Gorilla from Cameroon, the first gorilla on display at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

This poem first appeared in Poetry (October 1956) and is part of the portfolio “‘These Blazing Forms’: The Life and Work of Margaret Danner” from the March 2022 issue.

Source: Poetry (March 2022)