H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

JEFF PONIEWAZ

Open Letter to Tiger Woods

Tiger Tiger burning bright

On the fairways of the white

Please don’t ignore the plight

Of your namesake kin:

Tiger Tiger flickering dim

In dwindling forests of the night

Due to overpopulation’s blight.

____________

Note: I wrote this poem circa 2003

when it occurred to me that though

many sports stars champion noble

causes, those causes always benefit

only one species: the human species

—like Ronald McDonald House. I

couldn’t think of a single one who

championed environmental causes.

Then it occurred to me: maybe Tiger

Woods could be enlisted to help save

the Tiger species. After all, his mother

was from a country that had tigers,

where Buddhist monks maintained

a “Tiger Temple” that’s a refuge for

tiger cubs orphaned by poachers. But

after his sex scandal hit the news in

late 2009, it was clear he wouldn’t be

endorsing Wheaties, let alone lending

his name to help save the Tigers.

[Originally published in NHS 2011, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs11/.]