THE JAGUAR – a savage beauty of a beast, savaged by more savage man

Jun 01, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – The majestic big cat sleeping in the savannah.
A picture of languid ease and perfect laziness.
But beware lest you dare to feel what mighty sinews
lie beneath its tawny yellow coat of black spots and rosettes.
In a moment—it’s a machine super-charged:
a lean elegant express train on the grassy plain.

Its jaws and teeth render into a hearty meal
a prey fashioned with flesh of granite and bones of steel.
It’s death to a lone deer, buffalo or capybara
when the ground startled by one ferocious leap of the jaguar.
And to think that Nature stamps such savagery
into the heart of an elusive creature of such breathtaking beauty.

There was a time when the jaguar prowled unfettered in the hinterland.
But now a savage beast watches for that more savage beast in humans
that roams with an unadulterated cruelty and a heart that sees no beauty,
but the profits when claws and teeth of the jaguar sold in far-flung markets.

Should we not protect the puissant jaguar
that defines our strength and resilience as a young nation?

In ten thousand years who knows what the sea will reclaim,
but I am counting on Mt. Roraima to still watch over this blessed land,
and for the savannahs to still hear the roar of the mighty jaguar—
drowned only by the unceasing thunder of old Kaieteur.

Sincerely,
Haimnauth Cecil Ramkirath