Decoy

Posted on January 16, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Is the angler fish ever tempted
by its own bait? Does it ever stir
from whatever trance-like state
passes for sleep in the aphotic zone,
see the glowing decoy & think,
Ah — mine! & surge forward,
jaws agape, like the proverbial donkey
tempted by a carrot? Or does it get
snappish at its traveling companion,
persistent as a bad conscience,
haunting as the image of its own death?
__________

Written for the Read Write Poem prompt, “traveling companions.” Links to other poems for the prompt are here.

For a more overtly political poem, see SB’s I Have This to Say About That, at Watermark.

About Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with one quadrillion of his closest microbial friends --- a tight-knit, symbiotic community comprising some 500 different species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
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6 Responses to Decoy

  1. susan says:
    January 16, 2008 at 2:24 pm

    persistent as a bad conscience,
    haunting as the image of its own death?

    very nice. Thanks for the read.

  2. Crafty Green Poet says:
    January 16, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Excellent, I’ve wondered the same thing myself sometimes

  3. quiet regular says:
    January 17, 2008 at 12:56 pm

    a mirror image of what’s in the mirror…whew! it’s not about me

  5. SB says:
    January 18, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    Ah, but is it about me?

    Very nice, Dave.

  6. ...deb says:
    January 20, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    I like your take on this, a fish I remember being enthralled with when Jaques Cousteau (must have) introduced me to it, an amazing creature.

    The idea that it is snappish made me smile, and wince. And read your poem over three times.