In a gap between the wind and the light
on the grasslands a jaguar
appears with all his liquid muscles
flowing underneath a coat
of spotted fire.
He is a reflection
without water to carry it.
When he leaps he is so fast he passes
through the beholder’s eye
and lands in the mind
where his image claws a way
to a refuge. He is safe in a person’s memory,
wild among the rocks
and in the shadows there
where time and water run in the same
arroyos, and where walls sink
into the land as quickly as they are built
along borders intended
to keep people apart. A jaguar’s memory
is beyond the reach of anyone;
it is a wilderness
of scents only he can receive.
It is what we imagine when we imagine truth
and cannot find a human word for it.
David Chorlton, Arizona, USA
3 comments:
David Chorlton says: 'I'm a European, born in Austria, grew up in Manchester, lived in Vienna for much of the 1970s and moved to Phoenix with my wife in 1978. Since then, the relationship between humans and nature has entered much of my work.'
Superb. Weaving the image into the idea flawlessly, the poem moves as fluid as water, memory and the beast it describes. A favourite.
Thanks for sharing this poem. The meld of the mind and physical was sublime.
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