American sonnet on finding out

by DAISY BASSEN

The leopard is enjoying eating your face.
That’s no consolation, I imagine.
I wouldn’t presume to know, to declare
Empathy, when that’s something you never cared
About before your face was a meal, not savored
But consumed with a certain zest, the inverse
Of the way a leopard lies in the hot sunshine,
Every moment being added to the one before,
The embodiment of potential energy. The pause
Before the strike, the kill that turns you
From someone into something, voilà! The leopard
Isn’t wasteful but doesn’t gorge herself.
She leaves what’s left for jackals, who,
It is alleged, love to laugh over their dinner.

Ω

Daisy Bassen is a poet and community child psychiatrist who graduated from Princeton University’s Creative Writing Program and completed her medical training at the University of Rochester and Brown. Her work has been published in Salamander, McSweeney’s, Smartish Pace, Plume, New York Quarterly, and [PANK], among other journals. Born and raised in New York, she lives in Rhode Island with her family.

Alpie Lein graduated from TCC in December 2024. She moved back to Germany to obtain her English BA in Berlin, where she is living and working as a photographer. In her free time, she is writing poetry and prose.