The Tiger Business

The road passes through the dense forest,
I can stand and stare all I like,
For hours, days,
But soon I’ll have to walk the winding road,
Through the lush overgrowth,
Past the blueness of a cloud full of sky,
My fate hunts,
The king of the jungle knows no rules,
Interspersed with long stretches of silence,
The Sambar calls, the big cat moves,
Hungry,
Silently through the dry grass, predatory,
A fat paw in the air, ready for the kill,
Fleetingly, I know fear,
The pain experience is real,
I curse the Gods, the road, the rain,
Couldn’t there be an easy end?
Need, I die at the hands of the beast,
Clawing my flesh, baring his frightening teeth,
A coward would run,
I can’t,
All this while I thought I was one,
Bravery is not a new mood,
Merely, that the threats in the past weren’t real enough,
For valour to fan out like peacock feather,
The quarry must be trapped,
A cry of anguish or a bugle call,
The fervour to live, alone,
Can slay the tiger.