On Tigers.

The Tiger

Human truth is exceedingly meager;
Man's Denial an invariable Feast:
Did Blake abolish the "I" from Tiger,
So as not to see himself in the Beast?

Tiger, Tiger - fading light
Blake painted you a ghastly sight.
Perhaps his eyes be riddled with sties:
Unconscious of base mimicry.

In times of yore, ululant cries
Marked thy waning into a prize;
Men knee-deep in sanguine mire
Sift thy kin to beings of prior.

And at what moment did evil impart
The carnal cravings of their hearts?
And how many lives must they deplete,
Before they succumb to thy entreat?

What the damage? What the bane?
When they're sated, will thee remain?
What the whisper? What the rasp
Will plea for the air within their grasp?

* * *

When the sun circles 10 more years,
Will the only Tigress hinder weirs?
And then will we still fail to see,
That the true beasts are you and me?

Tiger, Tiger - fading light
Blake painted you a ghastly sight.
Perhaps his eyes be riddled with sties,
Unconscious of base mimicry.

JOSHUA COMMANDER

Fortuna, California, U.S.A.