Poems of the Week

British Big Cats

by Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

Big cats with sightings in the British Isles
Remain elusive, but there’s one of note:
It cannot be a tiger, since it smiles.
The fur’s too blonde to make a lion’s coat.
It cannot be a jaguar. It’s too slow!
Snow leopard, or plain leopard? I think not!
How could this cat be either? We all know
Both leopards cannot change a single spot!
Instead this lazy feline morphs each day,
Grandiloquently toying with its prey.
Cat experts who have sighted it all say
A Cheshire cat’s more constant in its way!
There is no species name to speak to that—
So I propose: Panthera Boris Cat!