A Poem by Kathy Raines based on a real incident

Laughing, trembling soldiers,
Longing, crying, drunk.
“Free them! Save them!”
Singing in their souls,
“Bring ‘em on! Bring ‘em on!”
Thrumming in their chests,
Home ones, loved things,
Burning in their minds.

Weary, worried saviors
Holler, raid and shoot at
Thankless, raging freed ones
Hiding in the night.

Bolstered with beer,
They stroll through the zoo.
Through bars in the night,
Tiger eyes shine bright.
Conquered beauty, subdued,
Plush of orange and black.

“Here, Kitty, Cat!”
Want a snack?” he tries,
With a stab of teeth!
And a rush of stripes
An ungrateful beast,
Seizes hand and treat

And, Pow!
Soldier, savior,
Quick on the draw
Saves his friend
From the tiger’s maw.
He mistook the beam
In the tiger’s eye
For axis of evil
Drawing nigh.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
Dead in an Iraqi night.

From The Brownsville Herald:

Baghdad, Iraq. Sept. 24, 2003 —A U.S. soldier shot and killed a tiger at the Baghdad zoo after it bit another solder who had reached through the bars of its cage to feed it, a zoo security guard said Saturday.

The soldiers had been drinking beer when the entered the zoo Thursday night after it closed, said the guard, Zuhair Abdul-Majeed.

“He was drunk,” Abdul-Majeed said of the bitten soldier.

After the man was bit, the other American shot the tiger three times in the head and killed it, Abdul-Majeed told the Associated Press.

It was impossible to reach the U.S. military spokeman’s office because the telephones have not worked for three days.

The zoo reopened July 20, three months after Baghdad was captured by the Americans.

It had 1.5 million visitors in 2001 but hit hard times more recently. Saddam Hussein closed it for renovation last year, and it was scheduled to reopen on April 7 with a $27 million facelift.