The Hunt
The Hunt
One bar broke and then another for the rapid break
The escape was quick and painless
The man ran for his life from enemies
At top speed he fled with nothing on his feet
Sweat exuded, poured from his body
Breathing deep into the jungle dark
Captors ran too to take his life with knives and rifles
Thick jungle traps laughed at them as they ran by
Pursued their prisoner through labyrinths of vines and branches
Screaming angrily with lit torches through the pitch black night
Close behind, the soldiers chased their prey
Running, panting below the canopy
Shots rang out burning by his ears
Limbs flailing as the bullets flew blindly through the tangled vegetation
Jumping over logs and bushes, petrified of dying
Trudging through a rapid stream, bent on taking him down as well
He emerged on the other bank with a bleeding foot
A piranha mistook it for a lure, tore off a toe, swallowed it for dinner
Pain and fear set in while he hobbled on into the darkness
Panthers glared frantically at the injured man
Sized him up as breakfast, less one toe
Even insects had no respect for dignitaries from another land
They too needed to be fed
The soldiers had their troubles also as the jungle storms set in
Snuffed out their torches and tortured them with stinging rain
Scorpions and snakes are cold and hunger for a change
Tired of eating the same old rodents and stupid birds
Running through the jungle is not always a safe undertaking
When hunting down your prey to take a life
You never know who is on the menu from day to day
Perhaps someone with a different taste, from the human race
Someone who escaped from another plate
Or someone with knives and guns
Will find another kind of fate and dinner date
Copyright © Earl Schumacker | Year Posted 2014
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