Animal Crackers
Animal Crackers - Richard de Zoysa “Draw me a lion.” So I set my pen to work. Produce a lazy, kindly beast . . . Colour it yellow. “Does it bite?” “Sometimes, but only when it’s angry— if you pull its tail or say that it is just another cat . . ." But for the most part, indolent, biddable, basking in the sun of ancient pride. (Outside, the sunlight seems a trifle dulled and there’s a distant roaring, like a pride of lions, cross at being awakened from long, deep sleep). Then “Draw me a tiger.” Vision of a beast compounded of Jim Corbett yarns and Blake stalks through my mind, blazing Nature’s warning, black bars on gold. “DRAW!” You turn and draw the gun on me, as if to show that three-years-old understands force majeure and as you pull the silly plastic trigger all hell breaks loose; quite suddenly the sky is full of smoke and orange stripes of flame. BUT HERE THERE ARE NO TIGERS HERE THERE ARE ONLY LIONS. And their jackals run panting, rab