Familiar Predators

FAMILIAR PREDATORS

they slink in like rattle snakes
shaking their tails for music
drawing forth attention with rhythm
or to wise, a warning song
and then they choose to be bitten
with a certain intoxication that only venom can bring
though they bleed through puncture holes
and though they are swallowed whole
some prey discern no pain, devoured wholly

a skillful hawk descends with piercing talons
and in its sinful search pauses in momentum
piercing the water with a needle precision
and pulling them up one by one
carrying it squirming, flailing and dripping
grasping it tightly, firmly delicately,
as jealous flesh holds jealous flesh
hawk to sky, prey to sea
married to each respectively
till it being torn from habitat to nest
is dried and died in the moving
ready to feed a hawks family
with every little thing it had left

a lion dominating his lioness
biting neck and growling submissions
like whispered threats in her ravaged ears
for she stronger and sleeker than he
feeds him and the mass of mutts of cubs
smarter and more cunning, her strength his drive
aroused over mutual predatory instincts

and a house cat, never starved but still
pouncing on the field mouse
as though driven by something deep inside
poised to strike by command of parasites
because the shape of mice unlocks the sight
and claws once retracted grow
and the house cat licks its chops and struts
a sway, and tip toes under patted feet
till its cornered it, now given a choice
to deliver its mouth promptly, a killing bite
soaked against the predators tongue,
or to toy with it, and let it suffer like a toy
once warm blooded eventually cold, rigid, and
slain.