[Matt Q]

.
In the place of lions

In place of lions, just their white bone jaws:
mousetraps of teeth, and he the rodent prey.
Daniel, he hears them hiss, whose fishhook claws
rake at you now? Have you no god to stay
these lithe new beasts that slaver at your squeals?
He tries to run. His pale, unblemished skin
has never learned the songs of flesh that heals.
It glows. A light to guide the nightmares in.

Morning arrives in waves that sculpt the sand
to feline shapes and worse. Now Daniel prays
for armour plate, a carapace, a hand
to clasp in his against the fang-sharp days.
Beneath his quilt, less blessed than other men,
he huddles naked in his homemade den.

.

title was, "After the intervention"

S1L2 "him" -> "he"
S1L5 "dark" -> "lithe"