{"id":273,"date":"2009-09-01T12:31:22","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T17:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/?p=273"},"modified":"2009-09-01T12:31:22","modified_gmt":"2009-09-01T17:31:22","slug":"kelly-mathews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2009\/09\/kelly-mathews\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly Mathews"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lioness and Androcles
\nKelly Mathews, September 2009<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong>I lay with a fever in my cool cave,
\nmy paw infected because of a small thorn buried deep under a claw.
\nWhen the dark-haired man comes seeking refuge & finds me,
\nhe does not easily take a rock and
\nbreak my head open with it.
\nHe speaks to me kindly, approaches slowly,
\nstrokes quite softly the haunch, the flank leading to my paw.
\nI mewl like a kitten, when I mean to growl in fear.<\/p>\n

My body is quite limp.<\/p>\n

Then he digs deep, takes out the thorn,
\nsqueezes the old blood from my paw,
\nand I growl and purr.
\nHe cleans my paw, tears off strips of his clothing and binds me.
\nHe cups water in his hands, trickles it in my mouth.
\nHe falls asleep next to me.
\nHis scent is thick with meat
\nand feathered with flame.<\/p>\n

I lick the salt from his brow,
\ncurl around him, knead his back,
\nlick his neck.
\nI am purring as I have not since I lost my pride.
\nDeep night comes and I feel well enough to hunt,
\nbring back a deer.
\nI do not like it when he builds a fire, at first,
\nbut then, as the smoke fills the cave and the fat and grease
\nsizzle, I creep close to him, my paw throbbing.<\/p>\n

As he throws me a leg, I admire how the whip scars stripe his back.
\nAfter I eat my first cooked meat and I see he is done,
\nI lick the rocks & bones clean.
\nI smell his hands, his arms, his beard, his face
\nlick all the grease from them,
\nhe strokes my head, me purring all the while.
\nHe leans close to me, whispers, tenderly,
\n\u201cMy name is Androcles.\u201d<\/p>\n

I sleep well.<\/p>\n

Later when I am out hunting and caught,
\nI am not strong enough to fight of a dozen armed men.
\nThey have a cell for me that smells of fear and death.
\nThis place is darker, starker than my cave ever was.
\nNo man ever cooked a meal and shared it with the beasts here.
\nMy paw is completely healed now.
\nI want nothing more than to sink my fangs in
\nand rip asunder with my claws those who put me here.
\nMy hunger grows every moment until I am my hunger.
\nI am what men fear most, an open, red,
\nravenous maw of glistening teeth,
\nmy tail whipping back and forth,
\nhair standing on end
\nI am the ultimate predator, aroused
\nby shouting, screams, grunting, hooves thudding,
\nguts gorged and devoured, split by swords.<\/p>\n

Then, they open the gate to my cell.<\/p>\n

I slowly investigate the way to the light, slowly
\nas my hunger is quick. Roaring,
\nI smell flesh, salt, sweat, blood,
\nbound towards it in a leap,
\nthe bare, vulnerable skin, my paws pinning the lean body to the ground,
\nmy tongue upon it, my jaws around it, when the scent and smell
\nsay Androcles.<\/p>\n

He tastes so very good.
\nMy jaw aches, &
\nthen the rest of me, when I release him from my jaws.
\nI put my head down between my paws,
\ncannot look him in the eyes.<\/p>\n

Such silence around the arena
\nwhere there was
\nevery sort of noise.
\nThe king proclaims,
\n“The slave is master of this beast!”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly Mathews was born and raised in San Diego, California<\/span>. The rich culture there provided the perfect growing conditions for Kelly’s imagination. Surrounded by generations of people who loved telling and reading good stories and poetry, giving Kelly a sense of the mythological in her own life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lioness and Androcles Kelly Mathews, September 2009 I lay with a fever in my cool cave, my paw infected because of a small thorn buried deep under a claw. When the dark-haired man comes seeking refuge & finds me, he does not easily take a rock and break my head open with it. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-september-2009"],"yoast_head":"\nKelly Mathews - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2009\/09\/kelly-mathews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kelly Mathews - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Lioness and Androcles Kelly Mathews, September 2009 I lay with a fever in my cool cave, my paw infected because of a small thorn buried deep under a claw. 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