FIRST BORN

The first born tiger cub that day
Had no idea at all,
Just like the rest, he chose to play,
To tumble and to fall...
In time, he learned to stand up straight
And look Dad in the eye,
Acknowledging his Dad was great,
Oh, my, oh, my, oh, my!

Yet tiger cubs must grow and grow,
That's just the way life is,
Who knew what strengths he had to show,
What things would go amiss?
His destiny was years ahead,
For now, he just chewed tails
And filled the other cubs with dread,
Like other alpha males...

Then came respect, less fights, less brawls,
Less bickering and such,
As if a time of miracles
Had kept them all in touch...
First born or not, his stripes were earned,
He did things well, somehow,
He's turned out right by what he's learned,
He's quite the tiger now...


Denis Martindale, copyright, June 2014.


The poem is based on the magnificent painting by
Stephen Gayford, nb Google search gayfordgallery.

Find more wildlife poems using Google search
for the search phrase Stephen Gayford poetry.

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Stephen+Gayford+poetry

Poem shared here:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/first-born-7/

Printer-friendly text version, nb increase text size:

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/denis-martindale/first-born-7/

Shortcut: http://tinyurl.com/first-born-poem

http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com/2014/06/first-born.html

My Poetry website: http://poem.says.it

My Stephen Gayford tribute poems are here:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stephen-gayford/
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-prince-of-prints-2/
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brush-with-genius/
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gayford-gallery/

The Stephen Gayford Gallery website is here:

http://www.gayfordgallery.com

It was being updated in June 2014!

http://gayfordgallery.com/the-artist/

Youtube video: http://tinyurl.com/gayfordgallery-dot-com-video

Click-a-pic!

http://gayfordgallery.com/original-paintings/

http://gayfordgallery.com/originalwatercolours/

http://gayfordgallery.com/originalpencildrawings/

http://gayfordgallery.com/signedlimitededitionartistproofs/

There's also a Guest Book!

http://users2.smartgb.com/g/g.php?a=s&i=g25-52612-21

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The Stephen Gayford poems can be viewed here:

poemhunter.com links:

http://tinyurl.com/gayfordpoems or
http://tinyurl.com/gayfordpoems2
(that's for the A to Z title listings)

blog website links:

http://denis-martindale.blogspot.com
http://tinyurl.com/stephen-gayford-poetry

Framed pictures can be bought from UK websites:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/stephen-gayford
http://www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.preloved.co.uk
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Stephen+Gayford

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