Tigress: An Epic of Love

I slew my Lover and danced upon his body
drunk
with the maddening sweetness of Love,
      guarding him free and pure
                in the solace of my insanity
while evil and vanity
         clamored in the bloody battlefields of mortality.

Mother,
I feared my power once, restrained and tamed it, but
Tigress am I,
I ripped the chains of logic
and devoured respectability,
roaring defiance into the wilderness
taunting would-be warriors to take up their lances
and make a name for themselves,
            coming,
                       falling,
                              One by One
until my Lover snagged me
in his snare of songs and gods and art and beauty.

Milky-white and pearly-eyed, he danced flute in hand
around my sacred grounds
     and trees grew for him,
        flowers emanated their perfume for him
                 and the sky wept with longing for him.

He weaved a lullaby for my soul and the world watched in adoration
our story unfold
in the sanctity of the deepest mangroves
                                      no human eye had seen,
where we loved and made love and lived love,
creating love,
I, the Tigress and He,
the Song-Weaver
              under the moon-eyes of the lilies of the Night.

But I, yes I
Tigress am I
Daughter of the Mother-Destroyer am I
                     I ate what the gilded cage could not save

I slew my Lover and danced upon his body.

But why, why you ask,
    my response is
why, why do you ask,

Tigress am I, Lover am I, Daughter of Time and Space am I

My shape cannot be undone by the boundaries of rose-fields
and the depths of my Roar drowned the fish
that swam under his feet

Tigress am I
my cubs are not lambs!
My body is tender and ferocious
I cannot hide the strength of my walk!

The turrets and domes of our scented groves
were born on the bodies of the mutilated and failed,
those warriors who had tried to trap me for the glory of their kings,
only the tulips grew red of their blood, making my Poet weep.

His grief birthed his fear
as he recognized the Ambers held in the depths of my Eyes
and if he stayed he would not survive
the consuming sweetness of the fires that live inside
but if he left this monster’s side
                he would as surely die.

He slept with a dagger in disguise and his flute fled its lullabies

as I, Tigress am I, wild as my Mother, wise as my Mother,
smelt his fear and understood
all this time 
he had only seen a star where a constellation lies,
                  he had heard a note where a symphony played
                             and he had loved a woman where a goddess stayed.

Tigress yes, Lover, yes, Mother, yes!
I slew my Lover!
and I danced the Dance of folly with my sisters Grief and Pain
and thunder shook and lighting blazed and the sky yawned an abyss of celestial heights
as I wept and praised my slain Lover through these monsoon nights.

My tears bathed his body to marble white and my thundering feet softened his bed and I called to you Kali~Mother I, Mother I, Mother I, Tigress am I
wild am I, I slew my Lover and dance upon his body in praise of Love, in curse of Love
this Love I cannot tame, this Love you have made me with,
this body and shape and soul and spirit
       that cannot take flight
           yet soars in your ethereal Sight,

I cannot be caged but I want to be tamed…

Tamed, tamed, if only to be with my Lover again
so I may be a pearl he can hold and not a treasure he cannot imagine,
a woman, a woman, and not a Tigress,
not goddess born of the Chaos of Your Womb in the madness of your Hair,
not fire-eaten and honey-mouthed and Ebon like the First Night but,

a buttermilk doe made of baby sighs.

I weep Mother, I grieve,
for I Loved Mother with the Love You placed inside of me
and it feared my Lover and it grieved him
and I slew him because I could not bear his Living pain
                                                            and the pain of his Living.

I let him go Mother, back to You Mother

But You must know, You must know,
You slew Your Lover too
before He rose to become Your Sacred Symmetry,
Your Infinite Illusion,
the White Taj of your Black Edifice
         shimmering for eternity in the deepest pools of men’s memories.

But I weep Mother,
I weep for my Lover,
for where I saw a god
I but bathe and dress a body
and I weep, yes Mother, I weep

For Tigress am I,
your Daughter am I,
but my consort is but a man

and now I dance,
        alone under the stony moon-eyes of the dying lilies of the Night
in prayer for his resurrection or,
                              my eternal Flight.