Subject #24: Homo Sapien by Farane Zaidi

We have never studied a subject
quite as interesting as this one before.
This is what we have observed:

Its skin is pale and weathered,
splotches of deep red stains
underneath wet, bloodshot eyes.
Its abnormally round head grows
bulbous bulges on either side,
half visible through disheveled hair.

Its physique is unnaturally symmetrical,
bones concealed by excess flesh and meat,
slender forelimbs curling in on themselves,
quivering                            twitching
through the bars of the shackle locked cell.

Perhaps its most fascinating feature is the
giant wart in the center of its face,
oozing clear liquid out of one side
and into the hole that rasps incoherent
wails from its vocal chords. 

The subject is often in distress
when it sees us crawling up to its cage,
watching with every one of our eyes,
small and black, documenting every detail.
It cowers, but we do not intend to harm
our subject – we are scientists, not monsters, after all

Farane Zaidi has been a storyteller from the moment she held her first pencil. Her lifelong ambition is to become an academic librarian and a novelist. For Farane, writing is an escape from the real world—a realm of absolute artistic freedom and boundless creativity.