Another poem for class
But I figure I wrote it anyway, might as well display. Again not exactly my style, a little too formulaic, but this one's a little closer to the sort of stuff I usually do.

The one that got away

From high on my perch,
I surveyed the crowd;
A flash of brown hair attracts my stare,
And I swoop down from my father’s shoulders.
I was the eagle,
She was the osprey.

This social room in the church
Was my sunday school territory;
But since the day Beth came to my class
I’d devoted my cunning to another goal
I was the panther,
She was the prey.

I stalked through the room
Dodging inadverdent elbows
Seeking the only one there shorter than I
I careened around neighbors, coursed past the priest
I was the hound
She was the hare.

But I’d lost the sight
And never had her scent
My hunter’s instinct had gone awry
The social hour was ending
I was the wolf,
She was the moon.

Then I heard her quiet voice
Bared my fangs, and could said nothing
So she smiled, and left, and I smiled
And thought the world would end.
Slow-witted, I was a two-toed sloth
And she was a sparrow, aloft on the breeze.

I plodded back to my tree,
Took wing and crashed
Back onto my father’s shoulders
But as we moved into the street I shook my fur
Dropped to the ground, growled at a cat
I was a beast, and Beth- who’s that?