EXILE

EXILE

-Alan Duff

My shade is striped

My air is barred

(As it was before;

only here the bars

Do not bend with the wind.)

My breath is short

My claws are blunt

With long pacing on stone ground.

All day I smell

Zebra ... gazelle ...

But I am full of easy meat

I have no appetite.

Only at a dusk

When the monkeys mock from stone trees

And the buck (soft noses sniffing the air

For the scent they no longer fear)

Come down to the mudless pool to drink-

Only at dusk I dare to dream

Eyes half closed, bending the bars

Against the sun

And plotting my retun.