This piece comes from several different inspirations. The first, and most important comes from a well-known quote from Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986):

"Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire."

The second comes from a (2019) song inspired by this quote, which is called “Time is the Tiger”, by the Swedish Indy-Rock group ‘The Deportees’. Not too many songs instantly resonate with me, but this was one of them.

I have also referenced a line from another song, namely: “Turn the Lamp Down Low,” which was on the 1995 album “Edges of Twilight” by the Canadian grunge band: “The Tea Party”.

Above all, this piece is not only a realisation of the truth of the devouring tiger, but also the second part of Borge’s equation, namely that the tiger is also inside, which is, perhaps not necessarily a bad thing. Of course, there is also the far less philosophical and far more real-world inspiration, which comes from the fact that I worked quite a few years of my youth as a zookeeper, who cared for large carnivores, including tigers, and have always been fascinated and enthralled by their beauty and power.

And with all of that mentioned, and above everything else, I have also found that these ideas quite nicely dovetail into a recent study I heard about, where, especially in males, there is said to be a so-called “U-Shaped Happiness Curve” that tends to bottom out, and reach its deepest, darkest levels at between the ages of 46 and 48… Essentially the absolute butt-crack of Midlife Crisis, and which, just to happens, to be the stage of my life at which I find myself at the present time…

So, perhaps this proves, yet again, that I’m maybe not so much a ‘poet’ as a poetaster, who is spewing his midlife crisis into doggerel? :P