Vox Populi
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Pascale Petit: Black Jaguar with Quai Saint-Bernard
Behind the Fauverie a crawl of quayside traffic
while Aramis roars for his food, the air
turbulent as he opens his jaws in a huge
yawn. If I hold my breath, half-close my eyes
and listen hard — there at the tongue’s root,
in the voicebox of night, I might hear
the almost-vanished. He’s summoning his prey,
this lord of thunderbolts, calling to ghosts
of the Lost World, with this evening chant
to scarlet macaw, tapir, golden lion tamarin.
Until everything goes slow and the rush-hour
queue of scale-to-scale cars is one giant caiman
basking on the bank. The jaguar’s all
swimming stealth now — no sound — a stalker
camouflaged by floating hyacinths, senses
tuned only to the reptile of the road. Then, with
one bound, spray scatters like glass, as Aramis
lands on the brute’s back and bites its neck.
~~~
Copyright 2024 Pascale Petit. From Fauverie (Seren, 2014).
Pascale Petit’s poetry collection, Beast, published by Bloodaxe in 2025, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her novel, My Hummingbird Father, was published by Salt in 2024. She has published nine poetry collections, four of which were shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize. Mama Amazonica won the RSL Ondaatje, and Laurel prizes. Her eighth, Tiger Girl, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and Wales Book of the Year.
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The Lost World: By a Shaman—Poet I begin to perceive whats missing—long disappeared. To know what was here, as none of us now can know gives Pascal power we lack. She still sees them, she can tell us who we are by our loss. Save by her, how would we ever know?
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