Over in the yellowing grass

One can see a shadow pass

A valiant creature, great, but rare

There’s a tiger passing there

The dawn’s first light shines in his eyes 

Over in the grass it lies

Stalking on the wild deer

There’s a tiger passing here

With years of skill it moves its tail

Every feature made to scale

Its haunches move with every muscle 

Creating not the slightest rustle

Its mouth turned in a hunter’s grin

Concealing sharpened teeth within 

This wondrous beast will need its meat

Every creature is at its feet

Here the tiger is content

Happy in the jungle’s tent

His eyes are hues of flaring green

Giving off a secret gleam

Years of wisdom showing there

In the tiger’s emerald stare

No one knows where he has gone

Or were he’s going after dawn

This cat is wild, it can’t be tame

His ways forever stay the same

The jungle creatures must watch out 

And stay well off the tiger’s route

He deftly moves one giant paw

And silently unsheathes a claw

The wild deer, they still don’t see

The tiger’s deadly tapestry 

The saffron coat catches the sun

Grass and tiger blend as one

The dark war-paint will always trace

Uniquely on each tiger’s face

And telltale stripes across his hide

Go dripping down his muscled sides

This one is wild but also good

Though his ways aren’t understood

The tiger is the work of art

No man could have designed that heart

Nor the coat or lethal paw

But everyone can stand in awe

At the tiger passing by

At the tiger’s fearsome cry

The dawn breaks on the stalking creature

Muscles tense and every feature  

Ready to catch his filling meal

When a shot rings out, a sound of steel

The wild deer jump and start to run

At the sound of the musket gun

All the creatures of the dawn 

Hid themselves, in an instant, gone

At the shot of that terrible gun

Every creature, except for one

Over in the yellowing grass

One can see a shadow pass

There it lay its wounded head

There’s a tiger, lying dead.