Out of Place

What makes a lioness mother decide
that she's had enough of her burgeoning pride
then leave them to fend for themselves on the plain
despite their unfitness to ever sustain
advancement that helps them to healthily grow--
how could the giver of life treat them so?
Abandoning cubs to develop their flaws
like over-reliance on menacing claws
too eager to slash at a threat that's perceived
by orphans that never respectfully grieved
for they were too busy accepting the truth:
survival has forced them to forfeit their youth
and promise with which they were rightly imbued
by the vagabond breeder that brokered the brood.