During the daily ritual of chained release
Its soul signals sounds it knows but has forgotten.
Echoing distantly at first, then closer,
Wild howls of pain seep through the concrete slabs.
A tremor passes under its padding paws
As claws scratch coarsely beneath the cracks
And rabid panting permeates the pavement,
Fur and blood mingling with a gilded cage.
Ancestral voices flicker through oblivion.