carnivorous plants - AMSTERDAM REVIEW

when a victim is identified it is only in the post mortem that confirmation can occur. mollusks, spiders, birds all enjoy alike the sweet sugar of a pitcher plant, completely lacking self-awareness. the truth is carnivory thrives in uncertainty. the sunlight glinting off your skin drew shortened little breaths from me. sundew, bittersweet flypaper plant bleeds something little creatures can’t resist. take root in poor soil, these plants don’t take well to competition. thrive inside acidic nights of bogs and ponds and saturated sand. a bedroom might be just the hotbed of little vermin crawling right inside a violent death from being stuck. from instinct based in scent and pretty colors, not in trust. agonizing over how it came to this. you dissolve, so say biologists, if you find yourself immobile in a trap. carnivorous plants get all the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium the soil lacks from body juices, the liquified remains go right into the leaves. i’ve seen it. taken a slow recording, fallen into the porous holes, seen unheeded warnings and still came back for more the next morning.

Eric Adamson

Eric Adamson is a professor at Hudson County Community College and is a co-founding member of the HCCC Poetry and Language Collective. He loves cartoons, video games, and poetry.