Christmas In Hell
Christmas In Hell
In Animal Lands
December 15, 2018
Zoo Lights, Blue Days
The animals don’t get cold.
The animals that are supposed to stay inside stay inside during the cold winter days at the zoo as the hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights are draped everywhere and people who normally visit the zoo only in summer return in winter.
The monkeys, gorillas and reptiles remain tucked away in their extremely unnatural habitat while the polar bears, penguins and buffalo seem to welcome the cold winds, if not the nosy visitors.
Zoos are always sad. The Christmas lights don’t change that.
The animals would rather be at the North Pole, in the woods, on the tundra, deep in the jungle, free to live, kill and die. And when the bears and apes look at you know they know they should be somewhere else.
The elephants escaped years ago.
The butterflies died in the fall.
The Christmas music, though…the songs of Santa, lights, snow and Jesus…the animals hear the music. Just as they hear the wind and the silence and the night and the ever-present whisper of fight or flight, hunger and terror.
The animals hear the music. They believe in the cold, the night, the uncertainty and every sound. --TK
Saturday, December 15, 2018