Christmas In Cincinnati Zoo

Fake pyrotechnics bloom inside plastic strips. The night gets colder as Christmas carols limp on. I slip away from the dull concert into the unlit zoo, sure that among the sculptured caves and enclosures beasts pace their plots. Close by a large animal looms. I smell the weight of it, a matted moonlight awake under a thick pelt. Eyes spy each other through electric bodies. A restless prowler coughs, fearful Impressions escape their enclosures to hunt upon dark lost paths. I have seen enough, or rather I have not seen but sensed, a curious peril nosing my presence. Grizzly Bear or Bogey beast - hard to tell. Behind me I hear children still singing… a 1000 pound Hammerhead shark swims past my cringing mind on its way back to an unlit aquarium.