From your cage of golden ribbons, you stare at tiny cities made of lights and golden organs. These lights and golden organs stretch for miles and you realize that the earth’s seams are coming undone.

You stare at the palms of lion paws. You see more than bronzed fur and dirt stain. You see more than animal DNA.

You see the feeling of dirt pushed under your sensory system.
You see the feeling of dorsal root ganglion.

You remove your left lion-paw with a pair of scissors. You stare at your left human hand. You touch your right lion-paw with your left human hand.

You shake hands with your lion.

You feel like you’ve been wearing a scab. You feel like something that has been moving inside something for years.

You spread your claws. Your right lion-paw.

You want to return to the land of the horrifying lions.

But you were never a lion.