Leopard

[summer_jackel]

You won't see her.
she is the dapples in the shade,
soft, grey-eyed and unmoving.
You walked past her all your life and never saw

until she dropped. All spangled black and gold
how couldn't you? She seems so obvious now
she is the world
her touch everything.
to feel her fluid leap, if only once
to smell her
her softness
her coiling strength
her single-minded need.

Beauty strikes with savage power
hope's claws curved and bloody.
Her fangs are sharp; she takes the brain case from behind
holds it just so
that complex thought, the fear and wanting
reduce to sweet nourishment
keen sensation
the joy of now.