Blue Tigers

Blue tigers
creep swiftly,
smoldering coals for eyes.
Blue tigers like soot,
chalkily edge closer...
dusting shadow behind,
with quiet quick ripples
of thick clawed power,
shifting beneath the fur shroud.
Round eyed blue tigers
stalk in the jungles
of slender misting green,
torrential and emerging
with each fresh thunderstorm.
Covertly under the canopy,
blue tigers slip through
the unyielding undergrowth,
stealth with care,
crouching deep and tense.
They burst forth and clamp down
their mighty jaws,
blood runs red
from the squealing peccary,
filleted with hungry teeth.
And soon, sated
rough tiger tongues,
lick flat and clean,
the last droplets of red life,
nourished and purring,
the sleekly smiling
blue tigers.


February 7, 1994