Freedom Will Burn Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

‘If you do not immediately singe

the whiskers of a slain leopard,

its spirit will pursue the hunter.

A popular Abyssinian belief.'



What then of the leopard enslaved?

Trained for the circus with hot irons,

Used as a wheelbarrow by the clown,

Freedom and honour mocked?



Be sure, appropriate retribution is inevitable:

The leopard's spirit will pursue the hunter

But more thoroughly torment the clown -

For freedom will burn more than whiskers.