Trophies

The panther? It had already dragged you As if in its jaws, across Europe. As if trailing between its legs, Your mouth crying open, or not even crying any more, Just letting yourself be dragged. Its real prey Had skipped and escaped. So the fangs, Blind in frustration, Crushed your trachea, strangled the sounds. The Rorschach Splashing of those outpourings stained Your journal pages. Your effort to cry words Came apart in aired blood Enriched by the adrenalins Of despair, terror, sheer fury - After forty years The whiff of that beast, off the dry pages, Lifts the hair on the back of my hands. The thrill of it. The sudden Look that locked on me Through your amber jewels And as I caught you lolling locked Its jaws into my face. The tenacity Of the big cat’s claim On the one marked down and once disabled Is a chemical process - a combustion Of the stuff of judgement. So it sprang over you. Its jungle prints Hit your page. Plainly the blood Was your own. With a laugh I Took its full weight. Little did I know The shock attack of a big predator According to survivors numbs the target Into drunken euphoria. Still smiling As it carried me off I detached The hairband carefully from between its teeth And a ring from its ear, for my trophies.

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Trophies - meaning Summary

Fascination with Violent Power

The poem presents a predator as a figure for a force that has already wounded another person and now threatens the speaker. It moves between horror and fascination: the speaker sees traces of suffering in journal pages, yet feels drawn toward the panther's dangerous power. The final act of taking “trophies” suggests an uneasy attempt to claim control over an experience that remains violent, intimate, and consuming.

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