PAD Challenge Day 6

Today's dual prompt from NaPoWriMo and Poetic Asides: (1) write a poem about an animal (in the style of one of Marianne Moore's animal poems if you wish), and (2) write a poem about something hiding or hidden. That shouldn't be hard since so many animals have some method of "hiding" for defense or to lie in wait for prey. I used Moore's "The Fish" as a model for today's poem (perhaps more for form than content), and the trap door spider, one of nature's masters of camouflage and hiding (of which there are several species, by the way) as my subject.

Trap Door Spider

hide

deep inside

a long tunnel that you dug

and lined with silk, a deadly rug

the better for slipping up and down to

catch

from your hatch

camouflaged door, no welcome mat

D-shaped, silk-hinged, false floor that

dooms the unsuspecting creature

who

crawled or flew

oblivious to your pinching maw

to be cracked open by your jaw

some leftovers mixed with spit

food

for your brood

of spiderlings, crawling blind

while you, one of a single mind

lie in wait for the next meal to

snap

in your trap,

eight-legged deadly jack-in-the-box

a brutal denizen who mocks

our placid life, our naïve trust

to

walk through

our surroundings and not suspect

there’s any reason to protect

ourselves from such a hungry world.