The Cheetah

[kindofahippy]

(Inspired by "The Eagle")

Couchant, he waits in the grass,
watching for the prey to pass,
striking, unexpected and fast.

Another gazelle into oblivion fades,
a victim of his unyielding raids
one death, out of a thousand shades.

The animals can never know;
nor will humans, it cannot be;
bound by chains as we wayward go,
slaves unto the tyrants three:

for, it is these matters sublunary
which arise with every dawn;
Greed: a pecuniary entity,
Death, and Time, its pawn.

The bones, bleached white
by the sun's unforgiving rays,
the cheetah long passed into night,
itself, he continues to decay.