Hunter

[feline]

Rose Hunter

and you know how i pride myself          i say
i have no respect for those with weak stomachs or
          who shield their eyes or spare them what

          can we do with spared eyes anyway
keep them in a box or a jar or little plastic
bag          desechables          instead let’s line up
and see with the eyes we have unspared

the smoking lady would not come to the wake
it’s too sad she said          yeah it’s sad
i said it’s death lady          you bet it’s sad
and knew who that sounded like          got dead
ain’t gonna get undead goddamn it

somebody lost a parrot          can people stop
losing pets for a week or thereabouts

returning from chacala the inca          lion look!
striped pickup and behind the bars
i saw the caramel mane and almond
          and yellow eyes flick past
they were nothing like his anymore          you

were already dead when that died          finally
what fantasies can be sustained after those pictures

you see i am so much fiercer and stronger
          i looked into that lion eye
          and saw it was nothing like you


ROSE HUNTER is the author of You As Poetry (Texture Press), [four paths] (Texture Press), and to the river (Artistically Declined Press). She lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and tweets, @roseh400.