{"id":271,"date":"2016-01-28T14:19:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/?p=271"},"modified":"2016-01-28T14:19:36","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T20:19:36","slug":"the-reptile-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/the-reptile-room\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reptile Room"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Julia Franks<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I step lightly through the reptile room,<br \/>\nfeeling the shards of glass under my sneakers.<br \/>\nThe python smiles at me,<br \/>\nlizards surround me,<br \/>\ndragons sing my death song.<br \/>\nBlack Mamba and King Cobra<br \/>\nstand at full attention<br \/>\nand read my crimes.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m not guilty,<br \/>\nbut I accept my fate.<br \/>\nToothy grins and long necks<br \/>\nbob and weave in and out of each other.<br \/>\nRattles and hisses, bites and bruises.<br \/>\nGlass littered all around as I think to myself&#8230;<br \/>\nWhat a wonderful world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Julia Franks I step lightly through the reptile room, feeling the shards of glass under my sneakers. The python smiles at me, lizards surround me, dragons sing my death song. Black Mamba and King Cobra stand at full attention and read my crimes. I&#8217;m not guilty, but I accept my fate. Toothy grins and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Reptile Room - Mosaic Literary Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nicholls.edu\/mosaic\/2016\/01\/28\/the-reptile-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Reptile Room - Mosaic Literary Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Julia Franks I step lightly through the reptile room, feeling the shards of glass under my sneakers. 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