Richard Shannon
heart deep in hunger an aged leopard,
haunted by the fear it sowed in its prey,
sun weary, reclines on the river’s edge
moonlight wreathes his heart with
the golden image that gnaws at
hoary flanks and their spent sinew
eyes close and the image lingers like
preternatural cool in a cave
arching his gnarled torso the leopard
rises to the lisping voice of the river
in flight from the moonlight’s pastiche
heart deep in water the leopard
attends to the dissolving currents
soft intimations of unending rain
and the overhanging tree, the souls
midwife, with velvet fingers in
perfect stillness prepares the golden thread