It takes immense faith to take one step toward the Lion in the presence of the Lion.
—Rumi
When you arrived
I did not see the lion
crouched behind you,
did not feel the warmth
riding on its breath,
did not see the teeth,
the nostrils flared,
the glorious golden mane.
I only saw your smile.
And would I have run
toward you the way I did
knowing what I now know,
that its jaw could open wide
enough to consume the world
whole. And now you’re gone—
just disappeared—
sweet bait that led me
to the lair. And I’m
down to flimsy things
I pile between me
and his yellow stare.
Is the storyline inevitable?
Did all paths lead to here?
So few steps between us.
I pretend to hide all the same.
The hollow wish to know
what happens next.
Devoured by a lion?
Have I gone insane?
Rosemerry, it was
a metaphor.
I listen as his long tongue
slowly grooms
his paws, his wild
oh, it’s beautiful, mane.
“I pretend to hid all the same.” And so we go. Spending our lives hiding, complaining that we don’t get found.
There’s an interesting turn in the poem for me, where you ponder running toward the lion —
“And would I have run
toward you the way I did
knowing what I now know,…
interesting, because one would expect to run away. Of course, you did not see the lion, but the “flimsy things you pile between” is such a fine spot, all the way to “…and his yellow stare.” I wanted the poem to end there, and for me it did. Listen to that rhyme, too, on that closing note. For me, the metaphor is there without having to be explained. I think it ends better in the moment, not in the wrap up of that moment. Then, the metaphor lives!
I so see what you mean … I will wrestle with it a little more … I wrestled with it already a lot …
I love the evocation of the Cheshire cat here, Rosemerry. And the world-consuming turn hints at the manticore. This reminds me to send you “Red Rumi”…
oooh, the manticore! i had to look it up, and somehow it was exactly what i was imagining in a way–that fierce! But also, and i didn’t get the sense of this in what i found, i have the sense that this “lion” is unbelievably beautiful, radiant, that if it opened its mouth we could see the whole world in it …