A young lion, beloved and flexing king,
Viewing his domain of carnivores, though-
Safe at home, saw what foreign hunts could bring,
And planned how he might deliver the blow.

Hegemony starts with well-concealed spring.
He brought his empire all it could stow,
The lambs beyond the sea lay strewn in fields,
When strange lands’ dominant males could not stay
The Nemean beast which forced worlds to yield,
His wet claws scarred their lives, their young, their pray.

But feline Rex, his grand weakness revealed,
Was put to flight by the not so well-heeled.
While the lion’s roar falls silent this day,
The old pride stricken, slumps slowly away.

Copyright © 1999 Paul Heno