Hand or Paws

Which would you choose?

 

Hands or Paws

 

Softly she touches the door

As silently, so silently she slips out and away

Never once looking back, lest emotions pull her back

Time has been spent, yea wasted these days

As she planned and schemed this day to awake

Many more days than life itself

As once more his hand upon her fell

Living through this one tortured desperate soul

Studies she has his every move

Committed to memory as in breath does quickly

Landed once on her feet from lighting so fast

As her razor sharp claws tear flesh from his face

Falls now he does never to rise

True, true was the woman who cast her this spell

Running still running to cover she goes

Never the more to hide from his blows

She paces from wood to meadow and back to wood

Waiting to decide which path to choose.

Given this power to escape was she

And took it without thinking the end of the plan

Now torn between tame and yearning for wild

Power she feels from deep, deep inside

A longing so passionate, so inborn it burns

As day falls to night, she drops to her paws

Senses so keen and muscles so strong

Yet now she hears them coming for her fast

Maybe better to be human and live for more days

Than stay in her wildness and die this night

Her cunning not inborn with nature she runs

From blows she hides not, for guns are their arms!

Too many for her, yet she fears them not

As she turns back on her trail, the dogs to confuse

Takes one of the elders and lays him to rest

No mortal wound would she waste tonight

Quickly and stealthily, she runs through the darkness

Seeing with eyes not her own and using senses never before known

As the last ones fall, she takes it all in

Returns she does to her feminine state

Blood cleansed from her hands as she faces her choice.

Hunted the cat forever will be, yet victim no more will ever she

Return now to home, and find the one

Who forced this plight no woman should face

Dead though he is, his widow she be

Dare to claim she his foul body?

Or run off to wood, and stay as a cat?

Live for herself her father did say

Take one more step and the direction she found

Ran straight through the night to the village now fast!

And into the her former foul home she must

For all might connect when the marks they find

From cat to human, she left one fast mark

Now to mourn the dead, and begin anew

But where could she from this spell now live

For every town has a wood, and it calls to her soul

Should she ever once more in life now find

A love true without this demise?

A choice she must now make before sun’s first light

Cat or Human, Human or Cat?

The choice made now be fast in the form she has chosen

Now wipes off her hands on her apron

And opens she the door

To face the bright sun, and face her the cat

Her inner self wanders so easily, stealthily away

Not looking back, but into the woods and gone.

There on the floor, her foot she has found

Blood from one who shall strike her no more

Calls she the lawmen to handle this mess,

And opens the door to call her sweet child

Reason only did she the wild deny.

 

 

Reviews

[Nancy Lee Shrader]

Oh the dreams of an abused wife. To put an end to her abuser, but still remain innocent. The wildness alures, but mother's love brings her back.

Well done! You have a materpiece here. Loved it.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Very gripping and intriguing poem... gave me a chill just reading it... great poem.