Biography of Creature #2
Biography of Creature #3
Biography of Creature #5
The iguana races past the wilting fern
as he searches for the perfect meal.
Though he’s never tasted one,
he’d love an egg from the fussy brown chicken
who will only eat corn from the hand of the farmer’s child.
This time, however, Nature offers
a buzzing fly dizzy from the spin of the earth.
A snap of the tongue, and there you have it:
a snack the size of a button on the farmer’s torn shirt.
The horse carries the widow to the edge of the wood
only to discover that she’s going to sell him to a sorcerer.
No, it’s too late to throw the rider,
too late to feign a limp.
Now widow and sorcerer exchange pleasantries
as the terrified horse attempts to back away
from the little man in the moon-and-stars smock.
The sorcerer claps his hands and an apple appears:
his first concrete gift to the skittish and brilliant animal
who will learn to love him before a week has passed.
The worker ant becomes more animated
with each passing day of summer
and stores his energy with the cache of food
he’s helping to amass.
He does not know the meaning of play
and regards with a skeptic’s cold eye
the human boy tossing a huge red ball
to a little girl clad in a pink bikini.
Sonja James is the author of The White Spider in My Hand (New Academia Publishing, 2015), Calling Old Ghosts to Supper (Finishing Line Press, 2013), Children of the Moon (Argonne House Press, 2004), and Baiting the Hook (the Bunny & the Crocodile Press, 1999). Her poetry has appeared in FIELD, Beloit Poetry Journal, 32 Poems, UCity Review, Kestrel, The South Carolina Review, Verse Daily, and Poet Lore, among others. New work will be published in the Gettysburg Review, Innisfree, Lips, December, and Gargoyle. Among her honors are four Pushcart Prize nominations. She has two sons and resides in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
