I'm falling in love with a panther.
He caught my eye in the dark...
   or was he the dark?

Silky black powerful faraway huge
His shoulders rolled with a twist of his stride
Bringing him closer to electrify my side
   and give me a glimpse
   of his battle scars

Fingers of fur to tickle a laugh
Dark melancholy to beckon a past
I placed my hands on his whiskery face,
let them slide behind his agonized gates
Are those words that were spoke from me or him?

In his ambling walk lives a passionate heartbeat,
     in his hunted gaze the joyful sorrow of seeing and remaining unseen
     behind great sharp leaves and semi-permanent shadows

Warmblooded, crystal river, feeling panther
Not so unknown
Not so feared or shunned
What's this crimson breath in my throat?

To hear his cry a mile away
What is this wrenching, muddy pain in my soul, in my core,
      calling me like one I've known
      and yet never before?
Panther, please don't die

I turn just in time to see the darkness rolling over his tear-drenched side
Fall to my knees to catch his heavy head in my determined palms
      watch as his blood trickles from him to me,
      feel it absorb into the promise in my skin

When the soft pastel of day caresses his black silhouette,
      I place a wondering hand
      on his warm, lifting chest
Stroke my fingers along his chin to his ears
Peaceful shutters covering his eyes in temporary rest from The Chase,
      nothing to remind me of the danger
      but a flick of his sleeping paw

When I lay next to him with my back against his hard belly and my foot brushing back to still his,
       my heart finds its elusive case,
       my fingers his wiry, black fur
There is a panther heart in mine.

Muzzle near my neck and fire racing sanity
What is this love-shaped thing misting my mind?
Heavy, muscled body shifts and I brace myself for the end
Instead I find myself face to face with my other half

Gazing into a deep dark silky pool
        I can't explain
        can't seem to leave

Beautiful unexpected deep impassioned new
I think I've fallen in love
Eyes of my panther sad, understanding, wise, searching for something I don't have
I'd follow him into any jungle dark
       latte and chocolate
       coat and skin

Face to face yet with burning eyes straight ahead
I rest my hand on his thick dark neck as we walk side by side
My panther and me
Down a road neither can know, bound by something so sweetly unseen

(I)
So concretey, these jungles
but not like this
Glass shards shoot up 45 stories
only to have tarp covered markets
populated by shouters

Oh, Powerpuff Girls on backpacks
one green
one purple
one pink
And 10 dollar Gucci bags
these people have it made
Four blocks from the world stock exchange
these people have it made

(II)
You ain't had won ton noodle soup
Or chicken feet
Or shrimp stuffed eggplant
Or food from Chinese franchise Pizza Huts
which happens to be an escargot joint
What does that say about US?
hopefully not much

(III)
Red taxis between every other car
Double decker busses
more common than city pigeons
Still the city finds time for trees
whiskery ents rising out of
ancient volcanic soil

You would think it's a city full of sin
Seven million souls, what-
that's higher than I can count
It's not
Everyone here is cute and wrinkly
Confucian
except for the young
These people have it made

(IV)
In this city, you're expected to stay
home with mom and dad
As they get cute and wrinkly
you're to return the love
Confucian
these people have it made
11 seated dinners
these people have it made

(V)*
Here in this ancient city
the gravestones dot the hills
coat the hills
And then the cremation jars bury the hills
(yes, they're dead)
cough*

Here's how a Chinese name is structured:
[family name] [given name]
Confucianism
and then these names fade too
These people have it made
but it's alright.

Lilies in the long grass
wild with tigers, striped orange
under trees, cool canopied
buds of sun blossoming
pretty cats slumber
sleek they dream.

Nights,
twitching whiskery
breathing slow
slinking low
as if to stalk
shock the sallow moon
hunt and growl
purr and prowl
animals whispering
stark the tiger lilies
glistening.

The ugliest woman that ever was born
was called Margery Pilkington-Brown.
If a monkey was born half as ugly as that
they would certainly have it put down.

Her head was as bald as a billiard ball,
yet the hair on her chin was quite long.
For a girl to be cursed with a whiskery beard
was, in anyone’s thinking, quite wrong

Mrs Pilkington cried, “Nurse, please take it away.
It’s a miniature monster from hell.”
“Put a bag on its head,” said the nurse, with a wave,
“If you need a supply, ring the bell.”

So Mrs P stayed for a month and a day
‘Till they told her, quite firmly, to go.
The nurse sympathised with a rolling of eyes
as she packaged the Lady-Shave Pro.

“Oh, what a disgrace when they look at her face
and they see she’s a hideous brute?”
“We’ll give you a bag with a hole in the top.
You can hide her away in the boot.”

So Mrs P left with a feeling of dread
planning what she could do with the sprog.
She drove to a wood at the edge of the park
and left Margery under a log.

“That’s a terrible thing that you’re doing,” he growled.
Mrs P jumped a mile or two.
The Park-Keeper peered at the face in the bag.
“Can’t you find it a home at the zoo?”

Downhearted, she took little Margery home
to a cupboard, until it was night.
She couldn’t risk anyone catching a glance
of poor Margery’s face in the light.

When Mr P saw his new daughter he scowled,
“God Almighty, my dear, what is that?
Has it crawled from a stone in the corner of hell,
or been dragged from a hole by the cat?”

“It’s our baby, dear heart,” cried a hurt Mrs P,
in a trice, feeling rather endeared.
“She may not be nice, but she’s our flesh and blood
with my feet and your belly and beard.”

“Well, yes, I suppose with her seventeen toes
and a nose that could open a tin,
she is rather unique in a curious way
and we’re blessed that she isn’t a twin.

She’s ours, as you say. We can’t give her away
So she’ll stay as a Pilkington – Brown.
We’ll  give her a shave and a hat with a brim
And avoid going into the town.”

I once knew a man called Joy
We met when he was but a boy
He was merry as can be
But his chin was soon whiskery
He wore a red plumed hat
With a matching cravat
His pants were green and fluffed
Tucked into boots all scuffed
We had a cheery life together
No man could have ever been better
But soon he was far older than me
Eye to eye we could not see
His laugh lines got all baggy
His skin turned grey and saggy
It breaks my heart every day
Remembering what he did say
We were walking through a grove
Between the trees we strode
Under one he sat to rest his head
Looked about him and happily said
“This is more beauty I have ever seen”
On his face the light shone green
That was the last time I saw the man
“Please do not leave me!” I began
But it was too late and he was dead
Ever since I’ve felt nothing but dread

for some reason,
unnown yet
i am sitting here
hot coffee in hand
transfixed by the
memory of a day
lifetimes ago.....

when i took a wrong turn
seeking a small town... and
a cobbler of  soft leather shoes...
instead i found myself
on a bush track, far too
narrow to turn my combi
van around
forced to travel on...
getting further and further
along

until, abruptly the track widened
and the most gorgeous vista
appeared
green grass, sedges and spinfex in waves,
led down to a billabong, eucalypt gums,
ghost and red,
large in size and old in years
dotted the irregular,
ameboic shape

and the water,
so clear, so clear, so clear
reflecting the cloud dusted sky,

to one side the face of a gorge, ochre red rusted
crazed weith black cracks
and green whiskery growths,
on which rock wallabies fed.
unafraid of the big lemoned
wedged combi, who sat
monolithically in their environs.

as  i disembarked,
up from the grass thicket, one thousand and one (i counted) budgerigars alight and took to the wing,
in a swirling mass of
god's whimsical glory.
the sound, a deafening
chirk-chatter and whoosh
as they, in sychron,
wheeled and turned flew over my head and back into  the bush.

needless to say, i never bothered to buy those soft
leather shoes.....

a wildfire of blue and azure
     eats a spread of buttery white
near the crawling cool of yellow
     which wounds the wistful waters,

wealthy waves of whiskery green
     dance and sing with the dark,
star-spun dreams from her mind,
     flaring over them, asleep,

envision the pink, flirty flag of hers,
     of flesh, ever so inviting, and
the soft, infinite red which bursts
     into pleasures, and flavors,
fine, fine flavors where this
     tongue, gladly,
          will dive into.

we were all impressed and deceived
     by the pallette of the world.
i say, mark that orange sphere
     as often as you could.
     remember it...
          ...with her...

...for our eyes, too, will wear off,
     abandoning the richest
     of life's colors.

from then on, hear me say,
     i love her,
for what are words, but
     a soul from my heart
          painting my soul,

and my very soul is love,
     what can i say?
the derivative of my works,
     my poetry, is from
     and is her.

she is the color purple
     in this slow burn
          at twilight,

     as i hang Blambitt's Peacock
          on the wall.*

© 2015 J.S.P.

Uninspiringly a soft black snake slips across the path
Flicks its pink forked tongue in the damp Florida air
And disappears into the myriad of green ferns
As if you to say “Your existence is inconsequential”
And perhaps footsteps in the mud is all the hammock
Will remember of us (like memories of the dead).

So the zebra long-wing floats on an embankment of breeze
Stops to rest on an orchid high atop an oak tree
Covered in a vague blanket of whiskery purple plants
Hanging over the reflection of a speechless sinkhole
The gaping mouth of death where an alligator basks lazily
Stirring centuries in the silver swirl of his tail
Echoes outward from the beginning of time.

And your eyes begin to open widely
(Before now you have just been sleepwalking)
To the soft reflection of white wispy clouds
To the unbounded blue black of time, the sky
To the slow bend of emerald palms in the breeze
To the white flutter of egret wings rising up and over
Disappearing into the opacity of the jungle.

So the afternoon wanes in overwhelming branches
Colors blending delicately into mountains of azure
Lilac, plum, auburn, cherry, salmon
Whispering to you “Hold on to this moment”
Reverberating in the smooth glaze of reflections
(The first colors you have ever truly seen)
Dripping from the dusky tropical Florida sky
Melting into the expanding darkness of the night.

So you identify
as a cat,...

I'm alright with that

come in through the flap
in the back door ,

eat jellied meat from a bowl on the floor

crap in a tray or lay
cables in neighbours
back yards

Shouldn't be hard to tell

you're a cat

Beeline to your feline kin, slapping
the thatch off a whiskery chin
and yowling like grief

treating your mates
to a corpse of a bird
that you hold In
your teeth

lie on the sack
with your tongue in your crack

and I'll back you're a cat

But I think you'll change

in fact,

I'm willing to bet

When you're not so busy,
oh, little Miss Frisky

We're taking a trip
to the vet

The cool night air, raids my skin,
embraces my breath, and holds on to me,
tighter.
As if whispering in my ear, "I love you."
on midnight over the dark horizon.
I sink the feeling of mud on my feet,
my whiskery feet, ebbed with soil.

I feel naked, not in the sense, I'm bare and without apparel,
but of the feeling,
That this is my true self.
Where my wild fantasies can dance,
to every notion and every chord,
of midnight's music, on fret boards, pumping life.
The fact that I am who I am cusps me harder,
and my fantasies, pull me up,
into the musical, whimsical Arabic night.

I rediscover myself, in shattered trees,
left by the wind,
lightning crackles, dancing with joy, as I dance too.
A dance with the devil, the wind spiraling around me,
My thoughts throttled, pushing boundaries.
And my fantasies, becoming my ecstasies,
as the wind slows down, leaving me in relaxation,
like after a man's ******.

I'm a
small town
petting zoo
goat,
a gentle
domesticated
farm animal
leashed loosely
to a pole for
no real
reason

just standing
there,
waiting for
the right
little girl
to scratch
behind my
ears
or pet my
whiskery
snout
just to earn
some much
needed rest.

you can sit
next to me
if you're nice.