Lynx

Tawny eyes
are wide and wary
but aimed
another way
just when he pads
out of the wood
toward me
over a fallen tree
bridging a gully.
His coiled gait
even limns
a gliding insouciance
as he balances
but the underlying tautness
belies any carelessness.
I hold my breath,
and the uncomfortable crouch
where his sudden appearance
caught me
wait
until he is framed exactly.
My camera shutter
cracks once
like a gunshot in the quiet
and he snaps round
making me
in an inhuman instant,
a large startled cat
unused to being so easily caught.
He turns, graceful even then
to fade fast back into the brush.
As I trip the release once more
he flings a single outraged glare
sizzling back over his shoulder
nearly melting my nerve
behind this cool glassy eye
I stare through.