I’m posting this poem in response to a challenge on dVersePoets about rebellion. Since the prompt is quite broad, this poem seems to work for it. Comes from my first chapbook.

OUT OF LOVE WITH THE FROG
after Claudia Coutu Radmore

American Bullfrog Rana catesbeiana Side 1800px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m not sure the exact day
I fell out of love with the frog
Rana catesbeiana…
was it the toothless mandible,
the way his eyes retracted
through roof of mouth
the fenestrated skull with its rows
of tiny teeth on maxilla?

I became prey, my every motion
a spur to devour me,
first my thoughts, then my character,
leaving me thoughtless and merciless.

Each strike his eyes would close,
then lunge, mouth open,
mucous tongue upon me
jaws continuing forward
clenching, grasping me in tiny teeth.
As we sank into swamp,
the frog tried to break my defences,
hold me under until I asphyxiated.
Obstinate as always, I broke free.

Carol A. Stephen

Originally published in Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, Bondi Press, 2011