The Hawk and the Hare
You are the predator
I am the prey
You are a winged creature of the sky
I am a timid creature of the ground
You sit high among the treetops
I am camouflaged among the brush
You scan for any movement
I am vulnerable out in the open
You descend from your perch
I have caught your attention
You silently glide through the air
I run in fear and try to hide
You are so close now
I see your shadow on the ground
You pounce in an instant
I am stunned and cannot move
You sink your talons deep into my flesh
I struggle against your attack
You allow no escape
I am your captive
You spread out your wings
I am mantled, hidden from sight
You begin to devour me
I surrender to my fate, in darkness
Before us now, the music plays
As we dance to its rhythms, as old as life itself
This dance of predator and prey
For you are the hawk and I am the hare
3.23.01
Author's Notes
The inspiration for this poem came to me one night while Kodi and I were working on one of her latest projects. We had been looking through a book of fairy tales.
Kodi looked over at the marks on my neck to admire her handiwork. I remembered how it felt to have her teeth on my skin and the way that her long hair fanned out around me on the bed when she was on top of me. It was that image of her hair that reminded me of a hawk that has captured prey, mantling it by spreading out its wings. So I grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled down about six lines or so. I had several ideas for the title, but finally settled for The Hawk and the Hare. Recalling the story index from the book of fairy tales, many of the stories had similar titles.
The poem speaks to my fantasies of BDSM (Bondage/Discipline, Slave/Master), of being bound, blindfolded, captive prey surrendering to the will of my predator. I usually don't write from the perspective of what it would be like to be something or someone else. It was easier than I ever thought.
But what wasn't so easy, what I actually struggled with, was the identity of the prey. I felt I needed to identify what the prey was. I didn't want to be a mouse because it's so small compared to a hawk, which felt like an unfair size advantage. And I didn't want to seem that vulnerable.
Now a hare or rabbit is larger and it does have the advantage of speed. But I didn't really want to be a rabbit because in many Native American cultures, the rabbit represents fear. But the more I thought about it, I realized that in that situation of being bound, blindfolded, captive prey, fear would certainly be among the emotions that would be felt. So I went with it, being that a rabbit is larger than a mouse, and therefore not as vulnerable, but not too large a prey for a hawk to handle.
From the moment I started the poem, I had the feeling that it would be a good one. And I love the way the poem has turned out.
