Books, Brains & Blades

✍️ Writing Prompt:

Imagine you are an animal in a zoo or enclosure who wishes for something more. Write a personal diary entry or letter that shows how it feels to live behind glass and what dreams you hold.

Hi, I am Bob the boa,

Every day, two legs walk by, look at me, and walk away. I always dream about leaving that glass and slithering back into the wild and continue my amazing life. But whenever I dream someone needs to knock on my glass.

Here at this zoo thing, I am safe, fed well, and sometimes the two legs even play fetch with me! My domain is big and there is a small tunnel that leads to outside. Every night, I count the stars until I fall asleep. During the day, I show of my body to the two legs but they don’t listen. One time, I hung on my tail  but no one gave me any attention. Maybe it is because they already know all the stuff I can do? Maybe because they don’t like me? There is so much I can think.

One day, I was enjoying my mice when a two leg made a disgust face, fell onto my glass, and lay there on the floor motionless. I still remember that and hope he didn’t think I was scary. Two legs may find me scary because I have a venomous bite, but I don’t want to hurt them. My action is not to get food or have fun but it is to protect myself from danger.

I am more scared of these two legs than they are than me. If I use my venom on a two leg too many times, it may end my life. I do this because I don’t want this species hurting my fellow snakes.

I want to hunt whatever I want, face predators and start my own family. In my life, in order to have my species not extinct I must keep reproducing and mate with a female.

Though I am safe here, today, I still dream of having a free life out in the wild with my family and having a great life with no interruptions.