INSIDE THE ZULO By: Marta Navarro Garcia

Inside the zulu the air breaks, howls, moans, disappears.
Just like us, that when the season ends
we have become caged bones,
rumor of sogas,
hungry and cold made in Spain.

Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet.

I’m one of thousands of hounds
that every February becomes
in statistic of abandonment,
of forgetfulness and infamy.
Within the zulu we don’t exist,

Those who abandon us know that well.
From birth to death,
we belong in those walking cemeteries
that are called hunters.
We belong to those who get rid of us
when they no longer need us.
Inside the heat, the rope, the hunger and the cold,
we are invisible.

But, friends, friends, outside the Zulu we don’t exist either,
Those who legislate discriminate against us know that well
from those other dogs living in a home.
That cruel thread that binds hunters and lawmakers together
condemns us once again to mistreatment, to death.
They abandon us in the zulu
and they leave us in fruitless negotiations
where we are a sacrificed piece of chess.

A law that discriminates some dogs from others
it’s a cruel and unjust law.
And an unfair law is not a law.

Stop calling protection law on something that doesn’t protect us.
Call him a political trophy,
trap to sell smoke,
Failure sweetened with abuse syrup.

They abandon us in the wilderness,
they abandon us in parliament,
in the middle of the 21st century they keep abandoning us.

Pero resistiremos,
because someday this country will be dignified
of all the dogs in the world,
without distinction.

Read it on our Blog: https://www.plataformanac.org/dentro-del-zulo/

Illustration by Louise Charles-Saarikoski Fine Art