Endangered

Spotted
feline fur hangs
around her neck;
she sits in her skin
underneath the forbidden tree
foraging for food,
foul or fresh.

She is the only
one of her kind,
trying to clean herself up
in what little water
she can find in the forest;
it hasn't rained for years.

...he bites into a crisp, red apple,
chews slowly, swallows...
his breath is held,
his sights are focused,
he pulls the trigger
between the beats
of his hungry heart;
a gluttonous hit.

Dirty,
dying
on an empty stomach,
bleeding out black,
she never should have listened
to the greedy serpents
slithering in the grass.

...the most beautiful
are always brutal
creatures of habit,
aggressive and ferocious
when starving,
yet they can change their ways,
unlike the hunter;
forever
a fiend for the kill.

...a rotting carcass
left for the vultures
to clean her bones,
no longer chasing
the survival high of life;
she was reckless
when it came to fighting
her weaknesses,
now she runs towards the light