Awoke to find a tiger
By my bedside.
“Resolve to pray your day
I’m from your sister.
I am here to give you courage
No fear you need to have.”
“At night you sleep well?” she asks
“I fear what lies under my bed,” comes my reply.
She nuzzles me, says,
“My eyes catch demon lines
In the swirling dark underneath.
I catch and hold them tight.
By morn I know their names
They no longer need to know mine.
They turn to ash,
Added stripes on my back.
Come! Bound through meadow
Come! Bound to the stream.
Plunge to the middle,
The sun will sparkle on the water.
Let their tragedy wash out to sea.
Wonder at the cycle of nature.
On the river bank there are
Sisters and brothers,
A whole church of friends
Whose prayers call for the
Beauty of the land.
Once parched, now green.
Weeping restores life.
Now rest by the stream.”
I lie against her rich soft fur
She grooms herself.
She talks of her feisty cubs,
Her fierce love for them.
Up she gets and I experience life’s
Wonder, wonder, bounding tiger.
Theme for 2011
Part Two of the Grief & Wonder Trilogy: Wonder? Wonder, Wonderful
Jamie Coats February 2011