Hope In A Hopeless World

This land is being painted
with the blood of tigers.
Deep in the forest
lay a wounded striped beast
the gold and yellow and black
standing out among the leaves.
Around her were her
dumbstruck, terrified cubs,
with invisible tears of despair
drenching their fur.
With a flash jumps out of the trees
a poacher, his eyes shining 
with a sense of victory.
There begun a story
of a mother begging for her life
for the sake of her helpless children.
A mother speaking to the Devil,
who is killing her
for his own profit.
The tigress spoke through
her terrified molten gold eyes.
Nothing.
The man felt nothing.
Like white fire,
out came a long sword-like knife,
shimmering in the sunlight.
First there was a horrific silence.
Then came an agonising roar,
which sounded like a 
woman screaming.
Then a brief silence,
after which the cubs fled,
whimpering with numb shock.
Silence takes over
the forest, the world,
and the sun begins to set,
as the light slowly
goes out
in the eyes of a mother,
praying that her cubs will live 
in these impossible conditions,
and wishes for the survival
of her brothers and sisters.
Hope in a hopeless world...