It’s five years since she saw

a mountain lion walk in our backyard

and the next day we saw his paw-prints

big as dishes following a slender deer.

Hard December then,  mild one now,

a little sheet of ice that just won’t melt,

salt, and step careful. No beast left,

we have to make do with music,

that subtlest of all animals,  fangs

in harmony.  Lydian mode, footsteps

start on F above middle C, then

see what happens.  The Greeks

thought this luxurious, naughty,

Asian attitudes, tigers, drunken gods.