Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

even at rest,
the jaguar looks fast -
as long as
its eyes are focused
& its feet pad the ground

the caged cat
stalks a prey it cannot see,
and cannot reach;
does the pseudo-prey know?
does its heartbeat quicken?

plump caterpillar,
grounded on the sidewalk,
hopes that wings
will come around - before
a careless foot does

a fig tree
grew over a building;
that building 
collapsed long ago, but
now the tree is the building

the perfect tree
sits on a flat boulder -
roots clawing rock;
stunted and deformed,
but very much alive

the stone lotus
carved in the temple wall
will outlast
lovers and real lotuses -
such a clumsy copy

a boulder
balances on two points;
supports erode
one grain at a time -
until one grain too many

roots sprawl,
sinuously creeping.
what's it like
to hold so firm
and reach so far?

Temple of Dawn
stands by a river -
brown and wide,
a river both older
and younger than it

amid buff sands -
bare and blistering -
stands a shrub,
the carroty coned
ephedra bush