The Panther
In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His gaze, because of the bars flashing by,
has grown so tired that it's lost its hold.
To him it's as though there were thousands of bars
and behind the thousands of bars, no world.
That soft stride's supple, powerful steps
that turn in the smallest of circles
are like a dance of power around a center
in which a great will stands benumbed.
Only on occasion does the curtain hanging before the pupils
silently rise-- . Then an image goes in,
goes through the limbs' tensed stillness--
and is, in the heart, extinguished.