My name is Angelo.
I was born in Yonkers
or more correctly
on the way to Yonkers.
My mother
one of more than a hundred
crammed shoulder to shoulder
many sick and dying
in a trailer
filthy and acrid
with urine
and excrement
and misery
gave birth to me
and my brother
as others struggled
to create space,
offer reassuring touches,
not tread on her,
us.
I don't know when my brother
was trampled.
I've little memory of that time
of her
of my mother
and it is only through the kindness
of a stranger
that I survived.
Upon arrival,
the rest were herded,
amid wails and panic,
and my mother

and I
were separated.

I was
left alone
save for the body
of my dead brother.

Alone.

Then there was a woman,
a grandmother,
pleading with a man,
one of the men who'd herded
mother away,
and this man
argued
argued
argued
then strode over and yanked
me up
pushed me
into her arms
and turned his back.
As she bore me away,
I saw him strow
then stoop
then scoop
my brother's broken
body
and throw him away
like garbage.

11-19-2009



This poem is based on a true story of tragedy and cruelty and triumph and kindness and has a happy ending for Angelo, if not his mother and brother. Cindy Rexhaj was grocery shopping at an Italian market in Yonkers, New York when a truck filled with sheep started unloading at the live market and slaughterhouse nearby. As she walked over to get a closer look, Ms. Rexhaj noticed that among the adult animals being herded to their doom was a tiny black lamb, underfoot and in danger of being crushed. She also saw that another baby had already been trampled to death.

Acting quickly, Ms. Rexhaj pleaded with the driver to remove the newborn from the melee and reunite him with his mother. The driver insisted this was impossible but after much persuading he handed the orphaned lamb over to Ms. Rexhaj, who took him home to her small row house where she and her mother (who grew up on a farm in Europe) set about saving his life.

The women bottle-fed Angelo diluted baby formula and fitted him with diapers so he could be with them indoors and they also let him run around and relieve himself in their yard. Though he happily followed “Grandma” like a devoted puppy, Ms. Rexhaj realized that a row house in Yonkers was no place to raise a farm animal, so she called Farm Sanctuary for assistance.

Farm Sanctuary is a 175-acre shelter in Upstate New York that provides spacious, clean, straw-filled barns, nourishing food, veterinary care and love to suffering farm animals. Some of their animals were found during investigations of stockyards, factory farms and slaughterhouses -- animals who are abandoned at auctions when they could no longer walk, or thrown into dumpsters because they were no longer "productive" -- others came from SPCA's and humane societies who rescued farm animals left to starve. And some of the animals who reside at Farm Sanctuary actually took matters into their own hooves and escaped from the slaughterhouse!

These animals -- cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, and rabbits -- have one thing in common -- they needed refuge and Farm Sanctuary was there to provide safe haven. All of the animals at Farm Sanctuary, both in New York and at the 300-acre sister shelter in Northern California, were rescued victims of cruelty and neglect and are receiving rehabilitation and lifelong care.

Angelo is an amazingly happy, well-adjusted little guy. To see how happy, watch this video. Watching him frolic in the sun warms my heart and makes me smile:

www.youtube.com/watch

For more information on Farm Sanctuary or to read the personal stories of Angelo and others like him, check out Farm Sanctuary's site. As you consider charitable giving this holiday season, know that these people are doing good work and could really use your help.

www.farmsanctuary.org/rescue/rescues/