Life's Cruel Arithmetic
Jan 20 2023
The leopard was beautiful.
His iconic coat.
His steely eyes.
His noble head, held high.
And the easy gait
of his long lithe form,
the power
barely contained
beneath his supple silky skin.
In the still photo, mid-stride
the big cat
has a monkey by the head.
He walks calmly, impassively
firmly gripping his prize,
while her small helpless baby
fiercely clings
to the dead mother's body.
Desperately, I would say;
but this presumes the baby
understands death
and is aware of its fate.
I am told
he toyed with it for an hour
before the final kill,
the way a kitten
would bat at a plush toy,
running
with a cat's liquid grace
on padded paws and supple joints.
I can't tell you how deeply disturbed
I was by this.
How the image persists,
the visceral sense
of horror and pathos
continues to weigh on me.
But life's cruel arithmetic
is inexorable;
that predator and prey
will always exist,
and that in order to live
there must be death.
Which may explain
but hardly consoles.
“People's Choice
for Photographer of the Year Award”.
Perhaps a warning was in order
for sensitive souls
and those who romanticize nature.
But there was no such thing,
and as I scrolled unwittingly down
admiring the pictures
was forced to face reality.
That beauty and cruelty
must coexist.
That motherly love
is universal.
That with life
comes suffering.
And that while we may kill for sport
animals kill to survive.
A quick clean death
I can only hope.
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