Dreaming of Cheetahs

Several years ago I saw the photography art exhibit  Ashes and Snow  by Gregory Colbert.  It haunted me.  I especially loved his photographs of Cheetahs and humans, like these two:

Cheetahs have always been my favorite big cats. Something about their faces...

I've dreamed of Cheetahs, and here's a poem that came from one of those dreams:

Dreaming of Cheetahs

 

 

I stand in the bedroom of my childhood.

I open up my pencil case

and find

a living Cheetah and a wolverine

freeze-dried and condensed there.

I take them out and watch

as they grow into their real size.

They begin to fight each other

with much snarling and lunging.

I wonder which one will win.

I think it will be the Cheetah.

 

I stand on the porch of a house

I do not recognize.

I see a Cheetah running out of the woods,

running swiftly

directly at me.

I stay where I am. The Cheetah

curls up beside me and

puts her head in my lap.

I pet her. She begins to purr.

 

I am a cheater.

I wear cheaters,

glasses currently broken

at the stem,

glasses that can’t wipe off

the grey slipper in my left eye.

I play with and on words, as Cheetah becomes Cheater in my poem, and eyeglasses sometimes are called  "cheaters."

Wish I could go on a safari and have this experience!