• Apology for Lions
The man who keeps a lion in his house Never lacks company, visitors Call daily, provided of course The beast is tame, house-trained, Willing to shake hands And purr when scratched behind the ears.
People have lost respect for lions, undignified, Senile and glassy-eyed In public, begging for extra food: Willing to pose for/pictures And ready to prop their ragged jaws Wide open for the interfering head.
How does the world look from a lion's mouth, A landscape fringed by teeth And lent a new dimension by the fear of death? Or just the same as always, the photographer Treading on his own shadow, anxious to secure His record of the day a lion shared its breath.
The view is unimportant and the question Needs no answer; what is done Is always for another reason, To be seen and not to see To prove manhood or quite simply To claim acquaintance with the lion.
Lions have been taught to answer to their names, To beg, to juggle with balls and climb A ladder, even the simplest can perform A trick to earn its keep; The most intelligent wash will and sleep ln comfort in a padded room.
But some are savage, bite the soft hand That feeds them and escape to their own land Where game is scarce and every stream is poisoned, To live in salutary hunger, a price on their heads And die in ambush, renegades, Turning as the fashions change to legend.
PHILIP OAKS
Previous page
