Giant Pandas Eat Bamboo

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Rina Palumbo

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You could hear the steady sound of chewing, the tearing, the chomping, the rhythmic circular
munching of the giant panda. You could hear the ripping, the tearing, the breaking of the
bamboo: stems one by one, leaves one by one, new shoots in bunches. You are frightened as a
child, wondering if those sharp teeth embedded in muscular jaws, those razor claws with that
extra opposable digit would mistake you for a bamboo stalk, but your family says don’t be silly,
see that gentle creature (you only saw bulk weight), those soft black eyes (you only saw the
mask), that soft fur (you only saw bristles), how it is so silent (except for the sounds of
crepuscular eating), how could such a creature hurt anyone they would reassure you. So you
watched the giant panda; you watched it eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and got to know all the sounds its body made and forgot to tell anyone about the marks on your body that came from the claws and teeth because you knew no one would believe you, and it’s only skin anyway, not like the tears went down to muscle and bone, (except when they did) but you could hide in the bamboo forest and not be seen at all. But hiding is only good for a time, so you start running away. It’s a vast forest where you could sometimes glimpse others running from the giant panda, but you kept to yourself and ran deeper into the towering stalks. But you can’t run forever, so you slow down and stop, and you’re lost, so you sit down and look all around at the emerald green ripeness of the bars that surround you, and you reach out and grab one and taste it and start chewing.

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Rina Palumbo (she/her) is working on a novel and two long-form nonfiction writing projects in addition to short fiction, creative nonfiction, and prose poetry. Her work appears in The Hopkins Review, Ghost Parachute, Milk Candy, Bending Genres, Identity Theory, Stonecoast Review, and others.

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