EMILY AS THE JAGUAR WEPT

DARREN C. DEMAREE

I have seen the jungle undress

& that pre-aural song

of an origin dance

 
removed the will

of the giant cats, took

their teeth

 
from the other beasts

& showed their coats

& rolling shoulders

 
to be beautiful

enough to exist without

the torn meat

 
of a lesser-than hanging

from their epic jaws.

I started to cry

 
when they started to cry.

We saw Emily

headed out of the thickness

 
& we knew that it

no longer mattered how

beautiful we might be,

 
we would be hungry now

for a red to fill the landscape

she had once stripped down.

∘∘∘