PROSE POEM AS TRAP THEORY “The key thing in the anthropology of trapping is that a trap is a kind of technology that embodies a model of its prey and a model of its hunter at the same time.” —Nick Sever, guest on This Machine Kills, Episode 240 this poem is written for you / designed to trap you / in place / metaphorically of course / you can leave / turn the page / close the site, app, book / place your hands over your ears or eyes / but if I’ve placed the tripwire / carefully / you will spring this string I tied to the moon / languishing above your rumpled bedsheets / look, it is / lovely to feel as though something / eternal / watches over you in your loneliness / pulls tides / cradles a month / nightlights all your worries away. No, you are too fleet of foot to fall for this tenuous metaphor. And so another box and string. let me tell you / of a being held down / my skirt pulled up by a group of boys / the stone shame of you know you wanted it / thrown at the glass house / of my unspoken / signaled / yes, I deserve it / small, grubby predators / recess pack hunters / atop smaller prey / uncamouflaged weakness / taught to seek cover in / baggy clothes / groups / silence / books / obscurity / flight / flight / flight Still here? Did my little wire catch your ankle as you slowed to nibble the cheese of trauma? if yes / then I Wily Coyoted you through painted-on tunnel vision / to still-life memory / a place gone / the school closed years ago / the boys grown / the girl hidden in middle age / I captured you / with a specific kind of bait / here, modeled as hunter / preying upon attention / designed this poem to trap you with me / in a box / where we can both feed / and live / on what hurt us.
LeAnne Hunt (she/her) is a regular at the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry reading at the Ugly Mug in Orange, California. She has poems published in Cultural Weekly, Spillway, and Hybrid Harpy Review. She proofreads for Moon Tide Press and publishes a blog of writing prompts and apologies at leannehunt.com
All rights © LeAnne Hunt
a moon of one's own 