By luck we saw a young male leopard in Kruger National Park on October 29th, and Roger Garrison took a great photograph of that moment, which the poem describes. (click on the image to enlarge it.)
The yellow eye’s hypnotic pupils
gaze down with imperious enormity
at us, and there beneath the tree
a gutted Kudu, his fresh kill
the liver eaten, bloodsmell
already thickening with flies
feasting on the guarded carcase
but too small to challenge.
Blossoming high in nearby foliage
ten patient White-backed vultures
hope to reach the feast’s riches
before Hyenas source the blood.
The drama’s silence bursts in a flood
of jockeying jeeps, whirring cameras
anachronisms, – mere chimeras
devoid of significant food chain value.
The yellow eye’s contracted pupils
glaze, – sated and dismissive.
