Hunt Mother by Samantha Duncan | ISSUE TWENTY TWO: Less Malty Rye

Hunt Mother

Samantha Duncan

I grow toward a nest,
often play as called upon.

Cubs are baby time, I
have a pounce on them,

and wait for their stripes.
I start chambers

like pieces of a garden,
scissor leaves for jaws

to carry love and help
sneak a mom

into leafcutter rooms,
climb old rivers, grow

and keep the nest sharp.
Often I prey, playful hunt.

This is a found poem. Source: “Tiger Cubs Grow Up.” National Geographic Little Kids Magazine. March/April 2014.

Samantha Duncan is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Playing One on TV (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2018) and The Birth Creatures (Agape Editions, 2016), and her work has recently appeared in BOAAT, Glass Poetry, Meridian, and decomP. She is a prose editor for Storyscape Journal and reads for The Atlas Review, and she lives in Houston.

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