Today I walked with a tiger.

 

Moving with a grace and speed that I could never match,

out of the tall grass,

 

Came a tiger.

 

Head impossibly steady, with eyes unblinking, she flew toward me.

 

In that moment, I knew what it is like to be prey.

 

She stopped and turned.

Mere feet from me.

 

Mesmerized, I walked alongside.

Almost as a companion.

 

Only the fence of her prison protected my life.

 

In my mind, I was her friend.

 

But how could that be?

She was trapped and I was free.

 

Her pace showed desperation, sorrow, wretchedness.

 

Faint cries told me that she no longer knew what she was.

She was lost. No longer magnificent in freedom.

 

A half-life, creating beauty for voyeurs.

 

And I was one.

 

Not caring that she was lost,

Selfishly viewing her beauty,

Not caring that it was wrong.

 

Her beauty

I could never see

Without this cage beside me.

 

So, I walked with her,

believing I was a companion.

 

But how could that be?

She was trapped and I was free.

 

Today I walked with a tiger.

 

 

 

 

 

PG Harding is an electrical engineer, freelance writer, poet and author of the “Messenger Within”, a science fiction story about global warming.