Hold The Praying Mantis Upside Down

A Papa Rock Wren Prepares Breakfast For The Nest

Rock Wren (Salpinctes obsoletus), with inverted mantid (Mantis religiosa).

I do not pretend to know

whether it is better to hold a praying mantis

thus

before feeding it to one of your offspring,

but he seems quite confident in his ministrations,

emphatic even,

all that shaking and bobbing,

during a hundred chanting snippets and trills.

are these prayers or song, I wonder?

some pregnant pause?

some intended stall?

is he merely waiting for my too human and too curious eyes

to turn away

so that I cannot possibly witness him entering the nest cavity

within that rocky outcrop?

or is he, instead

awaiting some other passage;

for praying mantis to first become

sleeping mantis,

before…

‘being swallowed’ mantis,

breakfast to a ravenous rock wrenlet?

pray becomes prey

within a gaping mouth,

within a stony hole?

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