At Publix, The Florida Skunk Ape Hunts Dangerous Game

Abstract

46 CAYLIN CAPRA-THOMAS At Publix, The Florida Skunk Ape Hunts Dangerous Game Fairy Tale Review Award in Poetry Selected by Jane Miller  Of “At Publix, The Florida Skunk Ape Hunts Dangerous Game,” our generous final judge Jane Miller writes: I’ve chosen “At Publix, The Florida Skunk Ape Hunts Dangerous Game” because the poet, through a surrogate, has forced us to see how absurd our human constructions are, and, worse, how destructive are some of our passions. But it is the writer’s sense of an ending that I find most compelling. This, above the other distinguished poems, extends its inquiry into philosophical and spiritual realms. Rather than conclude with a further description of the place and time in the poem, or rather than conclude with a comparison to other worlds, extending the trope further imaginatively—both worthy poetic enterprises!—this poet risks a leap into another mode, from lyric and narrative all the way to the meditative—and by doing so, speaks directly to ethical questions about human responsibility. 47 At Publix, The Florida Skunk Ape Hunts Dangerous Game As feared, I have tired of the lima beans and iced deer liver strung from blood-splashed branches and now I slink from my sour, secret-keeping den into the bright, hard box the hairless ones built. Strange, what they have taken for feed: moss and grasses sacked in transparent skins, stacks of yellow orbs filled with stinging juice, alligator eggs, and so much cold red flesh under hundreds of harsh suns emitting no heat, no body to mark or sanctify the sacrifice. What monsters made this place? Who shall track them down? I used to hide when they—blank, odorless beings—entered my home to release their slithering-bodied mistakes, which I hunted and claimed in the name of the swamp. But I am bored of all that hissing, and my hunger is no hoax. The creatures sniff the air but cannot see me waiting in the coldest corridor. Tell me, in which organ does faith originate? I must know so I can eat it last. ...