TIGER MADONNA
Once I was tiger. I lived in the far north and roamed among
brown bear and elk, wolf and salmon, antelope and lynx.
One year the elk were sparse and my scat was white.
I could no longer avoid the people, like Thunder Bear
announcing his presence. My cubs live in zoos; soon I’ll be gone.
Like the debate over euthanasia, would I rather die in my own
snow bed or eat peanuts in Indiannapolis. The Chinese pay
10,000 for me, use my bones, organs, even whiskers,
think they can eat my power ( have heard I fuck
for days at a time). Once I was Amba, Protector of the Taiga,
Spirirt of the, Mountains, using the sun to blind my prey, springing
out of the dawn and sunset. Communism was better. Now, if Japanese
want pine, they kill the pine. My sister Snow Leopard used to eat
sheep. Now they go to foreign hunters for 20 grand.