a sadness came on me today
with insight into what high price
extinction is to pay
set among familiar friends
from dubious past though now
toward productive end
a feline introduction has been made
two zoo white tigers are set to
as crisis family plans are laid
yet done to death
was white wife's fate
at claw and fearsome tooth
of her enraged white tiger mate
I knew them somewhat slightly
skewed as viewed through bar of cage
they are fantastic yet
from two instead of more
lies one more White Siberian Tiger dead
and thoughts of what extinction means
sharply slanting in my head
an educated sign nearby
sounds forlorn rain forest cry
one forty dead that's 1 4 0
on each and every average day
whole species simply slip away
and thoughts of what extinction means
slant sharply in my head
© Mark Shepherd