The Bobcat and the Peony (poem by Sulis)

The poem below was written last year after I had the delight of seeing an adult bobcat and later a kitten at 3 pm in the afternoon while driving into the forest land where I live in southern Missouri.  Both creatures seemed quite unafraid of us or the vehicle, and we held eye contact with the very healthy adult for an astonishing length of time when we stopped beside it.

It was in an area of the forest near Flat Rock Creek (made famous by my neighbor Ken Carey's lovely book A Flat Rock Journal: A Day in the Ozark Mountains).  This area has recently been devastated by the most destructive kind of logging practice in the wake of a spring storm that brought many elder trees down.  I hope the bobcats have found somewhere safe to wait out the drama and that they will be back. 

The peony was growing incongruously (definitely not native) on the road side a short distance after I glimpsed these beautiful animals.

The Bobcat and the Peony by Sulis (17 July 2008)

An imprint flashed
its thoughts of light
between leaves of trees
and there
she was.

The long slope
of body intent
lithe with stealth
and yet
she paused.

In flank view
faced my gaze
and held
held me
in her health.

No fear in that
twitched ear.

I would have been
crushed
but for the unexpected
tameness
of a peony.

Innocent in white

and more light.

Interesting aside:  While seeking out an image for this post, searching peonies and bobcats, I came across the web page - Lore of the Cat: The White Cat - Symbol of Light and Good: The Talisman. Perhaps there is some protection for the forest in my curious double-sighting.

The talisman is a magical image which has the power to avert or repel evil.  Where the cat was believed to give powerful protection and to ward off unpleasantness of every kind, its image became widely used as a talisman when no living cat was available.  Cats carved over Theban temples gave them protection.  The Japanese used cat images to guard mortuary chambers against rats. A famous seventeenth century wood carving of a cat shows it sleeping among peonies over the door of a shrine in the temple of Nikko.  The cat was credited with having driven all vermin from the temple.

 

Sleeping cat, carving attributed to Hidari Jingoro, Toshogu, Nikko, Japan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And now for the beautiful wild creature itself - perhaps one day I will photograph the Greenwood Forest one I was lucky enough to encounter.  The one I saw had the short tail and flicked ears but was a softer brown to match the Ozark forest terrain.