Every movie can be improved by adding a hungry tiger into it--
a bullet-proof tiger who can talk, but
only speaks in aphorisms and maxims.
The tiger's voice should sound like broad green leaves
and love language.
High Noon with Gary Cooper, bad guys, and a bullet-proof tiger.
Citizen Kane with a talking tiger on a sled.
Casablanca with a tiger behind the bar, saying,
"Love is like the stripes of a zebra;
bright and dark touching but still apart and always moving."
Real life could be enhanced as well.
The tiger could eat people who don't allow their dogs upstairs,
who cut in line, and who take duckface selfies.
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away!"
the tiger would say while standing over their bones,
full with both flesh and satisfaction.
You could come over.
We can watch movies--with tigers in them!--
spouting maxims and bromides,
wrestling feverishly with each other and with the notion
of tigers knowing anything about zebras or hearts
except that they are foolish things
made of meat
and consumable.
____
for Shay's Word Garden Word List--Incidents Around the House
Love it. Stanza 3 made me laugh out loud. (jo)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderfully delicious poem - I love the imagery and the tone which was both funny and very thoughtful. Dipping a toe in surreality - Jae
ReplyDeleteI love the description of the tiger's voice. Stanza three made me grin. This poem made my day.
ReplyDeleteThere is something as playful and cruel as a cat about this notion of pervasive tigers, something that teases til you lay it out for us with your consummate deadpan skill in those final lines. You can't eat a metaphor, even if it is an Apple, but we know that red meat is tyger's food of choice. Brilliant, Shay. Tiger was the word that jumped out (as it were) for me on this list as well but as always, it's a very shaggy beast next to yours.
ReplyDeleteThis made me cackle. You definitely are original with your own word list. I love it when I can roam through dark and light in a poem.
ReplyDeleteHedge already used the word "brilliant" for this one, which is just what came to mind as I read this. That final stanza, your closing. I just wasn't expecting it, and *pow* with a big tiger paw, it got me. I am so in awe of your specialty at holding our hands and dancing us along with light and dark humor, with the ironic and the absurd, and then all of a sudden we realize you've magically unwrapped some deeper truth about human nature right before our very eyes.
ReplyDeleteHW’s comment about playful and cruel as a cat is perfect. I’m laughing at the Casablanca line, then holy crap, the claws come out and then the fangs. Brilliant all the way. We are fresh kill.
ReplyDelete