Wild and Free - April 4 2023

 

Wild and Free

April 4 2023

The cougar

at large in Los Angeles

   —  the city of angels

broken dreams

and celluloid fantasies  —

was followed avidly

by its world weary inhabitants.

Because he was authentic.

Because he was wild and free.

Because he represented danger

and possibility.

But really not so menacing.

Because he avoided people,

keeping to steep slopes

and wooded corridors.

Because he hunted at night,

an ambush predator

who fed on carrion

small game

unwary pets.

And despite his noble lineage

would happily claim roadkill

from scavenging birds.

But who never found a mate.

Which he was clearly searching for,

because even an animal

who is solitary by nature

has needs.

Although he was hardly the only one

who was lonely

in that big crowded place.

Found

on the 101

in a pool of warm blood;

struck

one moonless night

darting out from the chaparral.

Death

by transport truck.

The magnificent cat

in all his fierce feral beauty

crumpled on the road

all alone

with no one left to mourn.

As traffic hurtled by

sirens wailed

'copters thudded.

As the city lights shimmered

through the thick night air

no different than they’ve always done.

And as people tossed and turned

under rumpled sheets

in the muggy summer heat.

Or snuggled together in bed

making love.

Or were fast asleep.

The lucky ones

dreaming of wild beasts

roaming freely through a no-man's land

of verdant canyons

mountain passes

green backwoods.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/requiem-for-a-great-cat

All it took was the headline, the photo, and the opening sentence for me to want to write this poem. (I've still barely skimmed the article!)

I think the fascination with the cougar (or puma, as the writer of the New Yorker piece prefers) is the same as our attraction to domestic cats: this intersection with the wild; the allure of feline mystery. I wanted to evoke the contrast between city life and wildness. To reflect the frisson of danger that draws us to these charismatic creatures. And — despite the shameless anthropomorphizing — to capture the loneliness of a solitary creature in such an inhospitable place.

This another poem that rests on my recurring trope of man vs nature (a rivalry in which I am squarely on the side of nature!) Unfortunately here, the cougar loses in the end.