THE LEOPARD SKIN COAT
Brother leopards, cubs, beware
As you step forth from your lair
Hide your coats so golden gleaming,
Woman is watching, greedy, scheming.
She will her thin cold shoulders drape
With our skins, a leopard cape,
Take care, our babies, she is vicious,
Wantonly cruel and avaricious.
They do not hunt with upraised spear,
The cowards would show too much fear,
They resort to trickery mean and low,
Without the courage to face the foe.
Cruel traps with iron jaws
Lie hidden to mangle our velvet paws,
After hours of pain, a gun, a knife
Will be the end of a noble knife.
To be brought low in agony screaming
By the cowardly trap laid by a man.
Hear my howls, woman, as my blood flows, streaming,
Unable to move though I struggle to stand.
Fear and anger and pain so intense
Envelope me, flood me, until I lose sense.
At the end of the day, the sun sinks, dying,
And stains the sky crimson – like the pool where I’m lying.