Submitted by : Hamza on Prisoner

Trial by Hyena

Horizons blur in dancing heat,
Straw-like grass, hides running feet,
Scorching lamp burns furry back,
Patchy hides of laughing pack.

Chief remembers lion’s roar
Hyena’s dirty wounded jaw
Still has scar from striking claw
That saved the cubs from deadly gore.

But daddy’s busy hunting
Gazelle and cattle punting
Lion cubs are swiftly straying
In reckless friendly playing.

A sudden growl,
A flash of teeth,
Closing giggling bars,
Of scary furry cage.

‘We caught you two red-handed
With fangs and paws ablaze,
Training to attack us
In coming future days.’

Dwarfed and frightened cubs reply,
‘We were only playing games!’
Looking all around them
At stubborn stares of blame.

‘Just the other week,
Your father cut my check!
I had to drop your brother
And stop my morning snack!

We know that you’re all alike!
You think you have a right
To defend yourself and fight
And make us leave in flight!’

‘We never saw you coming
We didn’t come to fight!’
Circling jurors, grinning,
‘We know what you were planning!’

‘You even want to hurt us now!
I bet you’ve thought about it!’
Dribbling fangs, framed in black,
‘Guilty!’ cackled in court in chorus.

Lengthened grass in ruffled swaying
Masking feast of muffled frenzy.
Reddened teeth compete
For bloody murdered meat.

‘It’s good we caught them early
And stopped their clever plot
For if we found them older,
They might have fought us back.’

Clothed in clammy, furs of pink
Escaped the bulging bellies.
Before the thick of lion’s mane
Returns to smell their stink

Author: Abu Sumayyah - Held Hostage at a UK Prison