Tigers
                in the moonlight
catch you
                by the eye—

once, at the zoo,
                on Christmas
they overcame 
                their wall
and took
                a tormentor
by the throat,        
                a tiger’s
eye for an eye
                as it got taken
down
                by a rifle
in the sky

last 
                of the big
cats
                somebody
has its pelt now

somebody              
                has its meat
in a frost
                free Frigidaire
freezer.

                To dream
a tiger is
                to dream
of change
                if it is 
walking
                toward you
you are 
                ready if it
leaps 
                upon you
from the
                trees you
are ill
                prepared.

Either way
                they shimmer
and skulk
                we must
not use
                these words
bolt
                muzzle
grisly
                throat.