Understatement

I despise you with every furious cell in my body

I abhor you as magnified by the rays of a searing sun

I see you prickle down the tree on your spindly legs,

Clambering belligerently to your inevitable doom

 

Yesterday you were juicy, your fangs oozing venom

You closed in on your perpetual target

Misled by eight opposing points of observation

And fueled by your own dysfunctional greed

 

Now you are shriveled with the drought

Your seemingly abundant resources have expired

And you writhe madly in a sticky web of your own creation

Your entanglement is disgustingly fatal

 

I was paralyzed by your eyes the night I died

You blurred my memory with your octagonal grip

I was consumed and regurgitated, left lying in pieces

But with time, I have taken on a new form

 

I am the owl soaring upon the cool night breeze

I am at once soothed and renewed by a veil of mist

That clings to my wings and boosts my momentum

With grace, I plummet down toward my wily little prey…

 

Gotcha!


Jennifer Burnside