Poetry Friday: Green Anaconda haiku

I’ve been doing some research on wild animals lately, and it’s amazing the things I discover when I’m not trying. Like learning that anacondas can weigh over 200 pounds – or, as much as two toilets.

Yes, toilets. One standard toilet weighs about 100 pounds. As I said, it’s amazing what one can learn simply by accident!

Anyway, I got thinking about the green anaconda, specifically. The largest snake in the world, it may not grow quite as long as its cousin, the reticulated python, but when it comes to weight, no other snake compares. The largest ever found was 30 feet in length – half as long as a bowling lane – and weighed more than 500 pounds!

And because anacondas are members of the boa family, they rely on constriction to subdue their prey (fish, wild pigs, deer, even jaguars!) before swallowing it whole. They can then go weeks or months before eating again. Want to see an apex predator in action?

Any creature that can attack – and subdue – a crocodile has my utmost respect! But why am I am sharing this with you? Because, like so many things, all this information turned itself into a poem. I present to you…a haiku:

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Green Anaconda

Sssilence, ssstrength; one-month
hunger endsss in ssseconds here,
rainforessst café

– © 2017 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

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The Poetry Friday roundup can be found at A Teaching Life, so be sure to stop by and visit Tara for all of today’s poetry links along with a beautiful poem by Gary Soto!

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Flashlight Night (Boyd’s Mills Press) hits bookshelves Sept. 5, 2017!

Pre-orders are available now through Barnes & Noble and Amazon, or by clicking the image of the cover to the right. Of course, if you prefer, you can always wait til Sept. 5 and purchase it at your favorite local independent bookstore.

And thank you for all your support!

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