MAN AND BEAST

Clifford Dyment 1914-71

Hugging the ground by the lilac tree, 

With shadows in conspiracy, 

The black cat from the house next door 

Waits with death in each bared claw 

For the tender unwary bird 

That all the summer I have heard 

In the orchard singing, I hate 

The cat that is its savage fate, 

And choose a stone with which to send 

Slayer, not victim, to its end. 

I look to where the black cat lies, 

But drop my stone, seeing its eyes - 

Who is it sins now, those eyes say, 

You the hunter, or I the prey? 

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