Tigress

Burning fire fur

shimmers as headlights 

brandishing bright:

a liquid fire

swimming across bars

like tangerine paint

flecking with nighttime stripes; 

the darkened orbs of my pupils 

dilate amidst silken shadow

morphing to one skin:

a merging beating soul

where kindred hearts

are struck ablaze. 

I breathe when near his cage;

pulsing fingers yearn

for his furred frenzy;

my fingertips desperate for claws,

retractable daggers, 

that hide in caged concealment 

beneath burnt-orange paws…

I’m alive here. 

Panting.

Fierce. 

Absence from him 

cords my heart:

it becomes a frozen river

where pentacle shaped icicles

rotate in clutching grief -

restricting to narrow channels;

feminine flesh, when released,

is allowed to melt on the surface:

its frigid hue of blue death

discordant with blistering sun-rays. 

My feet find me back at his cage,

camouflaged shackles pulling tight:

binding my flesh to fur

as a wedding ritual;

my heartbeat quickens 

in his leonine presence,

viscerally bestial,

dripping sensual saliva 

from crimson-kissed jaws;

I yearn to touch his fatal fangs,

to enliven my vixen flesh

so ruby rivers rise beneath:

startlingly sacred as alabaster saints,

or pure, virginal skin. 

Tenderly, I caress his manly mane,

losing my fingers in his depths;

the bars between us melt

as I morph to his shape,

bending fleshy layers,

malleable yet mortal bones,

to ferocious, feral fur;

a drumming heart christens me

while I swim in new, virile veins:

those of a newborn tigress. 

I prowl, pant, pounce

upon paws of marmalade darkness 

no longer held by cage bars,

but able to proudly pad her way free

like a crackling, charred fire

into the kindling flecks of dawning night. 

I am reborn. 

Feline. 

Feral. 

Fiercely free.

Flash Issue 12