Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Panthera Tigris

Let's talk about your tiger.
The one that started following you around,
years ago now,
until you wonder how in the hell you used to slog through the days without one.

The tiger rides in your car with you,
fucking with the automatic windows.
She winds her way through the aisles at Target,
close by your side.
Make way, shoppers!
She leaps into the basket, taking the whole thing up.

Two biddies are scowling at you.
"Isn't it against the rules???"
"That tiger should be in the rain forest.
Or wherever tigers live.
Where is the manager????"

Tiger could care less.
She has fangs and claws that would make anybody crap their pants.
And who knows?
Maybe she has raised little tigers til there were enough baby tigers.
Maybe she has plucked monkeys right out of trees.
Maybe whole villages have had to stay in at night, on her account.

Your tiger wanders the 'burb at 3 a.m.
"Poor stewardship," says your next door neighbor, in a written note.
"Selfish, keeping a wild animal like that," says the busybody across the street.
But maybe the tiger was sick of the mangroves.
Maybe it was lonely there.
Maybe she felt lacking, like a museum tiger, until she found you,
but waking upon receiving your smokin' hot kiss,
she made up her mind then and there.

She stays because she wants to.
She's a tiger.
Who's gonna tell her no,
when she's such a big pretty kitty, and loves you so?
________

for Artistic Impressions at Real Toads

16 comments:

  1. Tiger, knock yourself out, I ain't gonna stop you for sure...

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  2. Tiger is one smart kitty. She knows a good thing (or a good woman) when she sees one...

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  3. oh!! imagine a tiger following you around!! that would be almost scary!! and that too a wild one!! gosh!!

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  4. I'm certainly not going to tell her "no!" What a fun fantasy!

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  5. I think with a tiger like that on my side I would even I would dare to hunt the aisles of Target

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  6. With only 3000 tigers left in the wild, this poem must give one pause for thought. Perhaps the only way the species will continue at all is in captivity. I know your tiger is metaphoric but the idea of it sent my thoughts down that awful corridor of extinction.

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  7. Back in the day (60s) ESSO/EXXON had a great marketing pitch using a sketch of a really cute tiger ~~ "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" ~~ your poem brought back the memory. Your tiger could take their tiger any day!!

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  8. I! SO! LOVE! THIS! Sheer perfection.

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  9. This is so freaking beautiful. I will walk through the supermarket grinning, thinking about Tiger; might even bare my teeth in playful, sisterly, kitty love to one or two... then jump in the cart and roar!

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  10. Love your tiger tales and the 'don't mess with me' attitude they exude. :)

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  11. A beautiful piece.

    I picture it and smile.

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  12. Exactly. The tiger is perfectly capable of making her own decisions.

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  13. I agree..let Tiger stay where she chooses. Who would have thought a photo of a skeleton would spark such a poem. I love it!

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