Leopard Spots

We lie embracing friendly shadows
Wild cheetahs accelerating frame-to-frame
Smoothly grooming hair and hiding faces
Zebra groping for grass roots with antelope
Slaking our thirst on mellow milk
Spear carriers in fire-walled caves
Slowly, gently exposing flesh and fold
Transforming candlelight to sunburnt sky
Purring as each morsel is mouthed
Charging into dense elephant bush horizons
Where the lion stalks so un-silently
And leopards come to have unyielding spots

Stephen Saunders, 1998