theparisreview:

“We decided to stop drinking and spend Sunday at the zoo. It was going nicely until she worked herself up over the observation that it was a horrible thing to cage the animals.

“‘That’s not very profound,’ I said, ‘everybody who goes to the zoo feels that sometime.’

“‘Oh, you cruel bastard,’ she screamed, ‘I’m not everybody!’

“She bellied over the guard rail and flung herself against the bars of the wolves’ cage.

“Three wolves had been circling and as soon as she touched the bar they froze, fur bristling along their spines.

“She had her arms stuck in between the bars up to her shoulders and as much of her face as she could wedge in yelling, ‘Eat me! Eat me!’ to the wolves.”

—Stuart Dybek, “Sunday at the Zoo”
Photography Still from Jean Cocteau’s Testament of Orpehus via 50 Watts