You Will Know the Lion by His Claw

Purring, the sweet-tempered soughing

Of lucrative savannah wind

Stirs the great flotsam of clouds that are vowing

To usher the evening in

Affecting the set of the reckoning sun

From burnished gold to crimson hue

Before this night is quite sorely undone

The Devil is coming for you

Like a ghost haunting the darkness

Stalking the veldt

Where many kings were felled

A savage growling rakes this grassy vastness

Halting you in the tracks you've laid

To rule this fulsome world

Now silent as a wisp of smoke

Terror grips you by the throat

You will know the lion by his claw

Mistaking fake demeanour

Was your first and fatal flaw

Never will the hunter

Ever be the hunted

Here or evermore

Taking my arena

Brought this courted slaughter to your door

I am nature's great restorer

First order Carnivora

Fate and foe, no time to implore

Mercy for she has fled

Tail tucked between her legs

Circled prey, recant and beg

To me alone, this powder keg

Of teeth and jaws together

In a riot of adventure

I am Leonine and ten commandments

Cut deep for your death

Damnatio ad bestias

Through limitless whispering seas

Of redolent tropical plains

Whereupon mystery's blistery frieze

A silvering gibbous moon reigns

Aggressive, obsessive to snuff out your lights

I come a cold virulent grue

Blighting your guides and delighting inside

On the pride that is tiding for you

As a beast feasting its hunger

Under this spell

Rifles and fire shall not repel

Industrious machinations rent asunder

No miring me in traps well-laid

I'll not pale to unveil my Hell

You will know the lion by his claw

This violence is a plague of flame

Licking the brush to flush out game

A bellow of rage caged in yellow eyes

Sees evil life seized, unleashed reprisal

You will know the lion by his claw

Mistaking fake demeanour

Was your first and fatal flaw

Never will the hunter

Ever be the hunted

Here or evermore

Taking my arena

Brought this courted slaughter to your door

You will know the lion by his claw

Now hear the growing thunder roar

Damnatio ad bestias

The walls of brackish thorn have fallen

Batterfang and chaos

Quick to marshal, maul the fools

Who stand by shattered loss

Your shadow scatters westward

Toward the fleeing stars

As a new dawn feeds upon the skies

Hearldic, rampant, battle-scarred

Damnatio ad bestias