Tuesday, January 5, 2021

The Leopard and the City

 “A leopard shall watch over their cities.”

 --Jeremiah 5:6



Rain fell out of the cloud of time.

It made no argument.  Droplets

blotched a blond meadow.  Out

of the pattern a leopard arose.

Its eyes reflected the cloud of time.


An old small city is my soul,

such as it is.  The leopard watches

over it, her breathing and her heartbeat

syncopated.  I do not visit there as often

as I should: Work is elsewhere

in factory-towns of will.  When


the small city seems to call, I take

a road curved round a cliff.  Up there

sits the leopard.  The ledge is blue.

Arrived, I seek a sanguine plaza.  People

I have tried to be loiter there.  They slouch

and lean and gab.  They know me well.


Out of the rain in a baked café,

we share a meal.  We speak of the leopard,

become one person in the cloud of time.


hans ostrom circa 1990/2021



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