Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo opens at the Baghdad Zoo, where two American soldiers are standing guard next to a caged Bengal tiger. The Tiger, who “stands like a person and speaks to the audience” (7), tells the audience about the situation at the Baghdad Zoo, where the lions already escaped and “predictably…got killed in about two hours” (7). The Tiger muses about the possibility of escaping the zoo if his cage got bombed and tells the audience “Zoo is hell” (11), revealing that he got shipped to Baghdad after “screw[ing] up” and eating someone 12 years ago.

Between the Tiger’s lines, the two American soldiers, Kev and Tom, are talking to each other, recalling their time in the Marines and making crude comments. Tom reveals a gold-plated semiautomatic pistol, telling Kev that it’s “Saddam’s kid’s gun,” stolen when the soldiers raided Hussein’s palace (9). He also says he won Saddam Hussein’s gold toilet seat in a poker game. Kev complains that he “ain’t seen shit” in the war. “Not one Iraqi did I get to kill!” (11).

Tom takes out a Slim Jim and tries to annoy the Tiger with it, sticking it in his cage.