Meat-Eaters
In B-films, the carnivorous plants
Are always huge. They swallow anyone
Who wanders near, a single knot of vines
Tugging a victim into the dark maw
Of horror, not discriminating
At all, as if eating were accident,
As if they were human. The real killers?
Some work together like the field
Of sundews, in England, that ate,
Within hours, millions of butterflies,
One true story that illustrates
The collective achievement of plants.
But working alone, selectivity
Is what matters. The Venus flytrap
Measures its meals so it doesn’t
Squander the down time of digestion
Upon the undersized. The jaw seals
Slowly, the spaces between its teeth
Allowing the escape of small insects.
So size-selective, its mouth, the young
Can flee, the tiny can skitter away,
Not through mercy, but efficiency,
What’s necessary for survival
When rooted in the earth’s poorest soil.
Gary Fincke's poetry collections have won what is now the Wheeler Prize (Ohio State), the Wheelbarrow Books Prize (Michigan State), The Stephen F. Austin Prize, the Jacar Press Prize, and the Arkansas Poetry Prize. Read more.
“Meat-Eater” has been previously Published in Alaska Quarterly Review and in the collection The History of Permanence (Stephen F. Austin, 2011).