Tigers Know From Birth
My bones predict the striking hour of thunder
And water as I huddle under
________The tree the lightning renders
I’m hung with seaweed, winding in its caul
The nightmare of a carp whose blood runs cold,
________A crab who apes my crawl
My lens is grafted from a jungle eye
To focus on the substance of a shadow’s
________Shadow on the sky
My forest filtered drum is pitched to hear
The serpent split the grass before the swish
________Is feather in my ear
I’ve learned from land and sea of every death
Save one, the easy rest, the little catnap
______Tigers know from birth’
(Anne Wilkinson)