The Courage of Lions

The Courage of Lions

by U.B. Light

There was a prairie with an outer, middle, and innermost ring,

And in the innermost ring you would often find a Lion king,

The sun shined brightly in his court where he liked to lay,

Resting there, all his heavy thoughts would melt away.

Being king our Lion had little to fear,

So he paid no attention when a little danger came near.

In the shape and form of a hyena danger did appear,

But it was just one hyena, and for a lion that is nothing to fear.

The outer ring the hyena circled around,

Making sure that this lion was the only lion to be found,

For this hyena was a scout,

And when he gave the call sixteen more hyenas did come about.

This brought our lion from laying to stand

For real danger was now at hand

One to seven hyenas he could surely defend on his own

But ten more he could not, and our lion was all alone.

Hyenas mocked with a mischievous laugh,

They got brave having down the math,

From the outer ring they moved closer to the middle one,

And the fight for our Lion’s life had begun

It began with a lunge attack,

Which made our Lion take a step back,

He countered with a swipe of his paw,

And that hyena attacked no more.

But the attacks were relentless,

Our Lion could not continue to defend all this,

So he roared for help for anyone who was near,

Or this would be his end our lion did fear.

The heads of many prairie dogs came into light,

But they would not get involved in our Lion’s plight,

Instead they stayed beyond the outer ring

And watched on to see what outcome would bring.

Yet our Lion’s roar was heard far and wide,

And it called another Lion to his side,

Who through basking sunlight lunged into the inner ring,

And with a roar of her own it was lioness who came to the aid of our Lion king

They hyenas paid no attention to the new aid

Their attacks did not fade,

Yet witnessing a display of courage creates a ripple,

It can make big the heart of even something so little,

A prairie dog father looked upon his own young,

Pushed his son back a few steps and down the field he begun to run,

He zigzagged through stomping paws,

And just out of reach of snatching jaws

The courage in his heart was all the magic he needed,

And when he lept into the inner circle the magic proceeded,

To transform his small body to match the courage inside,

And now in the innermost circle not two, but three lions stood side by side.

With three lions the hyenas now hesitated,

Stop this attack one hyena now protested,

To witness an act of courage has a ripple,

It can change a heart even when it is tight and little,

So into the inner circle she ran,

Not to attack but to take a stand,

And when she did she found herself other than she was before,

In the inner ring, where once stood three lions, four now roared.

The hyenas quivered and began to scatter,

And as they fled through the outer ring their bodies transformed into different matter,

Of people whose hearts were misinformed,

To bully anyone and anything that did not resemble the norm.

And the prairie dogs who watched this whole thing unfold,

Also were people watching with cameras just to capture a story to be told.

It became an opportunity to contemplate in this bystander culture,

How their heart might be different if they made a different choice to nurture.

As for the four that now stood as one,

They will have forever won,

An energy of courage deep inside,

That they chose to stand and not hide.

When the father rejoined his son up the hill,

The son hugged him with all his will

To witness an act of courage has a ripple,

Into the mind and heart of someone so young and so little,

That night the son returned to the basketball court in his neighborhood,

Crossed the outer, middle, and inner lines and in front of a plain wall he stood,

With paint in his hand out poured his art,

In the way he saw the unfolding of events from his heart.

And when the morning sun would come

It would shine on the mural he had done

Of a perimeter of prairie dogs looking on,

And of hyenas fleeing and gone,

From four lions standing side by side roaring on,

And he called it, THE COURAGE OF LIONS