Madonna Lionessa (Part I)
--Before meeting with her father & sisters, Cordelia is dealt a card depicting Woodwose by
Mor-Ríoghain, in the guise of a gypsy hag.
i.
As my sister's once-beautiful gray cat looks at me
She wasted now by a thyroid condition
I wonder what she sees in me today.
I think it would be nice to have a cat
Too bad I'm so allergic
Worse case of it we ever seen
They said at Walter Reed
And they'd given me just half a dose
On the arm during the allergy test
As I had warned '˜em.
I wouldn't want a house cat
A cat should be out-of-doors
In a barn killing mice and vermin
Stalking song-birds and eliminating
The timid humor of the chipmunk
A tiny lion.
Predator.
The sweetest thing I ever saw
Was a particoloured tabby
Crouched on a lawn
A tiny lion for sure
A beautiful hunting stalking machine.
She had a bell around her neck
And it was funny
This middle class hausfrau attempt
To deprive Tabby not of her powers
But of her reward.
They belled you, my tiny lion
So they could claim your rewards.
But you are courageous, nimble,
And you fear no pain.
With your jackrabbit hind legs
And your fierce forepaws
You manipulated the
Constraining leather collar,
Yanked and pulled and pushed
Yourself away from the executioner's yoke;
Impossible but that's your genius
To do what can't be done.
And when it was over
Claws cracked
Your neck scratched and bleeding
Drying blood stiffening the matted fur
Your coat no longer lustrous due to the
Enormity of your labour
You lay in the grass on your side
One eye glancing a peal-less heaven at an oblique angle
Over the tops of trees dancing together in a flying grove
Their purpose forgotten by the once-born.
They thought they could defeat you
And you vowed after surviving your small Shoah
'Never again.'
Copyright © Jon Hopwood | Year Posted 2009
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