Poetry By Candice Kelsey

        kooikkari CC




The Most Dangerous Game 
                                                            for Liza

I never taught that short story by Richard Connell,
but it pops up often when I tutor. Mostly, I’ve 
been able to keep the tale at arm’s length.

Until today. The news comes through they found
that jogger—that Memphis school teacher’s body 
in an abandoned lot near her killer’s apartment.

I quit teaching & work remotely now. Being home
for the last few months has bred an unhealthy
shut-in mentality—I don’t care to ever leave the house

again. I hear buckshot some mornings during duck 
& deer season. It’s a tradition for most fathers & sons
here in southeastern Georgia to enjoy the outdoors

by stalking, killing, and dismembering unsuspecting
wildlife. The land behind our back fence is protected.
It’s a no-hunting zone, you might say.  

I’ve never been killed & I don’t jog, but odds are
I’ve been stalked, followed, whatever with ill intent. 
I tell my husband the news about the Fletcher woman.

He announces he’ll make the drive to Appling to pick up
our 14 year-old daughter from soccer practice tonight.
No need for you to be driving dark, country roads.

No need for any of it, I think as I thank him. Traditions
are funny things. They can become rituals, like running
early in the morning or refusing to leave the house

or even obsessively checking the locks on the doors
before going to bed, where you sleep with a knife
under your pillow just in case. Traditions can be

stories we learn, fictions even, like that piece
about the crazy island where men are hunted 
for sport. Stupid author got it all wrong.

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CANDICE KELSEY [she/her] is a poet, educator, and activist currently living in Augusta, Georgia. She serves as a creative writing mentor with PEN America's Prison & Justice Writing Program; her work appears in Grub Street, Poet Lore, Lumiere Review, Hawai'i Pacific Review, and Slant among other journals. Recently, Candice was chosen as a finalist in Iowa Review's Poetry Contest and Cutthroat's Joy Harjo Poetry Prize. Her third book titled A Poet just released with Alien Buddha Press. Find her @candicekelsey1 and www.candicemkelseypoet.com.