The first and we stop, they are the lions. The lions are first. Mom and dad pull me up there, to the fence, the bars that I put my hands on. The mama lion is sleeping and the daddy is sleeping too and he yawns, this big lion, and he has dangerous teeth. His open mouth and it is big, he could swallow me, all of me. That is what dad says he says HE COULD SWALLOW ALL OF YOU IF YOU’RE NOT CAREFUL, and I don’t want to be swallowed, I don’t want to think about him this lion swallowing me with his dangerous teeth. I cover my ears. When my dad talks I sometimes cover my ears. I use the flat of my hands with my fingers out and I cover them up and I can’t, when they are covered up, hear anything. 

I asked my dad once what a desert was, before I knew that it was just sand and never-ending sun, and he said something long and with so many words that I got lost in it, like a maze.