Prisoners

         “What the hell is wrong with these people?” his blue eyes darted around at the ghoulish people laughing at his dismay. He was caged against his will. People pointed some even took pictures while he cried out for anyone to release him from his anguish. Sabine watched as he tried day after day to get someone to notice him. She had been in his position but she grew accustomed to the caged life, she knew there was nothing anyone could do. She closed her bronze eyes in sadness for the poor new-fangled soul that resided with her and others in the same cramped cell. Something they all had in common was the first line of their story: “I didn’t see that coming” to the ending line of “Someone please get me out of this place”.
         It was a sad way to live, cramped side-by-side fighting over food, just for others amusement. They never knew how cruel people could really be. Sabine opened her eyes again looking to the other cells. All around her were tortured cries and desperate pleas for relief. She would have re occurring nightmares of attempted escapes by some of the others; she remembered the terrified screams of the spectators and the angry din of the prisoners. What always woke her from her tortured mind was the ear splitting sound of gunfire followed by the collapse of a body or two. She would awake with a cry only to see the dawn of a new day.
         When the sun would rise she’d lift her tired malnourished head and curse the sun for making her live another day. She’d sit up from her perch on an artificial cliff and watch the zoo patron’s giggle and take pictures of her. Sabine, was a lion at the New York Zoo.