Venus Flytrap

by Chase Harker

Dionaea muscipula

Lured between my fleshy, nectared lobes
Something sweeps across a trigger hair
Then sideswipes another one with wing,
Antenna, or mandible. Whatever:
Entombed alive in an instant’s close.
With each writhe, contortion, or flail
Against these tight stomach walls, I will
Constrict toward a hermetic seal.
I will break down my prey, cell by cell,
Under ten torrid suns and lukewarm moons,
And gorge until it has been reduced
To a formless husk of chitin
Spat upon the grass. See my white flower
Perk—so beautiful, so innocuous.


Chase Harker is a poet from New Bern, North Carolina. He is an MFA candidate in poetry at UNC Wilmington. His work has appeared in Flying South, In Parentheses, and BarBar, and is forthcoming in Appalachian Review, Hive Avenue, and Roanoke Review.