Leopard Poem by Gert Strydom

Leopard, high up in a tree
your body and burning eyes I do barely see
and your camouflage makes you melt in
where you dwell untamed and free

and I wonder at the Creator's great art
that constructed you apart
from the lion, lamb and gazelle
and you presence drives fear into the heart
of every mortal man
as with fangs and claws you can
rip and tear and kill
while you live by you own deadly skill

and I wonder how your hunting came to be
out of the same love that created me

or did your fearsome killing begin
as one of the wages of sin
when by choice man did enter in
a world of suffering and pain
in which the effects of our own iniquity do remain?