a prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages a prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages quote

and a man no longer believes he is a man. But he just lay there, weary with that deep weariness that comes from boredom, taking shallow breaths, rolling now and then from side to side.įor after years of living in a cage, a lion no longer even believes it is a lion.

I desperately wanted him to, wanted for his sake the chance to stare me down, would have loved it if he took a swipe at me. During all of my visits, he never looked me in the eye. It sounded not so much fierce, but rather mournful. Sometimes late at night, after the city had gone to sleep, I would hear his roar come down from the hills. Instead, he spent every hour of every day and every night of every year alone, in a cage smaller than your bedroom, his food served to him through a little metal door. This wonderful, terrible creature should have been out roaming the savanna, ruling his pride, striking fear into the heart of every wildebeest, bringing down zebras and gazelles whenever the urge seized him. Perhaps it was fear mingled with admiration perhaps it was simply that my heart broke for the big old cat. Yet he was my favorite, and whenever the others would wander on to the monkey house or the tigers, I’d double back just for a few more minutes in the presence of someone so powerful and noble and deadly. Honestly, I felt I ought to shepherd my boys past him at a safe distance, as if he could pounce on us if he really wanted to. Sure, he was caged, but I’m telling you the bars offered small comfort when you stood within six feet of something that in any other situation saw you as an easy lunch.

A huge male, nearly five hundred pounds, with a wonderful mane and absolutely enormous paws.

Our local zoo had for years one of the biggest African lions I’ve ever seen.

A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages a prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages quote