Lion's Den

I walked into the lion’s den,
Hoping maybe he wasn’t hungry.
He licked his lips as I entered,
& slowly came towards me.

I’m neither naïve nor ignorant
So I already knew what's coming,
I saw his sharp yellow eyes glisten,
As he fixed his gaze towards me.

He circled me a couple of times,
Relishing the moment.
His sharp gaze burnt into my skin,
He couldn’t believe his luck.

The rest of it seemed to happen in slow motion,

As I recall, as he lunged on me,
he first went for my eyes.
Blinding me from the nightmare
That was surely about to come.

In my semi-blind state,
I felt more than I saw,
& with each bite that he took,
I knew I’d known it would end this way…

In the distance I could hear a friend shout;
‘Mbali! What are you doing?
Get the hell out of there!
He’s going to kill you!’

But what she didn’t realize,
Is that I’d made the choice to come here,
And I was going to let him have his way.
I was in the lion’s den after all,
So of course this had to happen.

He pinned my hair down with his paws,
& surprisingly I didn’t fight him.
I felt his nails slicing through my skull,
But I didn’t utter a word.

Then I felt him pause for a second,
‘What’s wrong with you’? He asked,
‘Shout, cry, scream. This is meant to hurt.’

It took all of my power to be still,
And let him have his way.

He saved my heart for last,
Hoping to devour it
As it lay bleeding & beating in his paw.


As his sharp teeth lunged
at my beating heart,
I heard a great big Howl,
And then a sharp tooth crack.

It was only then he realized,
My heart was made of stone.

I’d known that when I came here,
So I knew that I’d be fine.
He limped away into a corner,
Grabbing his bleeding jaw as he went.

I strolled out of that lion’s den,
Knowing I’d won the fight.