My Book Napping in Delilah’s Lap: The Plague of Pornography in the Pew & the Pulpit, available in Bookstores in June 2020, is a memoir and wake-up call outlining our capacity to be ensnared by a myriad fowlers – pride, food, sex, electronics, power, shopping, drugs, achievement, and control, to name a few. The poem below is an excerpt from it.
The Fowler’s Snare & the Kerf
“See, it doesn’t hurt,” hissed the voice, “if you just sit very still.”
And the firm grip around my ankle,
Gets firmer.
Deathly firmer.
Now it hurts even when I am still.
The chain clangs mockingly
As the jagged mouth of the snare,
Its cold metal uncaring,
Sinks its scabrous fangs.
I gasp sharply when it breaks the skin.
And its venomous rust rips to my heart.
“There, there…, just sit very still.”
I sense the false relief of paralysis.
And I learn to silence the whimper and live my life
With terminal stoicism.
I dab at my gaping wound with filthy rags and rewrap it with soiled ones. Again.
I learn to sit very still
Not to walk too far
I learn sophisticated ways to dignify my limp when I’m not lying low
I learn to appease the oppressive guard, Mr. Secrecy.
As gangrene gains ground
I forget what it was like to sing
I forget what it was like to flap my grand wings
I forget what it was like to take to the wind
“Shh… very still now,” he sneers, snarling ominously from time to time
And strokes me repulsively
Like a kidnapper attempting to kiss their victim.
Others around me are snared too,
But we don’t linger at eye contact.
We smile politely
We answer hurriedly
“I’m doing great, thank you. How are you?” …
by Hannah Kolehmainen
Image taken 2/24/2020 from https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/animals-subjected-horrific-suffering-due-16137065