Peter G. P. Thompson
Lion
Crouched in green jungle,
His golden eyes burning,
King condescending
In rainforest home :
Waiting, still waiting,
With impatient quiver,
By blue gushing river,
No need to roam :
For gazelles they are learning
To walk in the clearing,
In innocence turning
And gambolling home,
Following mother,
Secure in the knowledge
That nothing is heard
From the green jungle home.
On the edge of the clearing
The lion is staring,
Fresh from the track
Of a broken dead deer;
Waiting, still waiting,
With expectant tremor,
With golden-eyed glimmer
That all creatures fear.
The gazelles they are daring
To lie in the clearing;
Lithe legs they are baring
As once did the deer,
Copying mother,
Secure in the knowledge
That this is the way
Of gazelles and of deer.
Then out springs the lion
With eyes full of hunger,
Lightning-swift leap
Into tropical sun:
No longer waiting,
But there in the clearing,
With open claws spearing
The old and the young;
And those that are younger
Are left in the clearing,
And left to the hunger
Of eyes in the sun.
He learnt from his mother,
Secure in the knowledge,
That he who waits, feasts
In the tropical sun.
Page(s) 36-37
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