We Are Tigers Poem by Francis Santaquilani

We are tigers.
You are the larger one.
I warred against your whirl,
Then billowed to your bite.
Now I measure the force
Of your affection for me
In pounds per square inch.

That last day,
Before you carried me away,
That bad and good day,
The last day I thought of nothing
Swept horizontal:
Tall grass fanned my neck,
Half sleep was plump,
Clouds for clouds sake slid over me.
The day sank to my knees
And crawled with me in tow.

By your teeth
And your spin
The void fell away.
The day sped to a smudge
And clouds stampeded. And
One last look.

We are a team now.
Team terrible.
Blasting the void,
Pouncing on colors, shapes and sound.
I am your eyes and you are my ears.

Yet we don't trust each other.
You'll never remove your teeth from my neck
And I clutch your thick tail, like a lifeline.
We are both hunter and prey.
We dream on the prowl.

My life is full of bones.
More picked clean than not.
My eyes burn.
A knee to the bed
Is the crack of a twig.
A yawn is a scent launched.
I feel your turn.