{"id":356,"date":"2026-04-29T22:11:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/?page_id=356"},"modified":"2026-04-29T22:11:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:11:31","slug":"prey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/poetry\/prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradlee Thomas<\/span><\/h1>\n

(trigger warning: assault, blood)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I love to lie in puddles of red<\/span><\/p>\n

and pretend it\u2019s my final day.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I sprawl out the contents of the purse<\/span><\/p>\n

I know that he will do the same to.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I practice how to fall down gracefully<\/span><\/p>\n

after he grabs me from the back by its strap<\/span><\/p>\n

resting on my shoulder<\/span><\/p>\n

with my right hand held on.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I imagine how it will feel<\/span><\/p>\n

to fade out of consciousness<\/span><\/p>\n

while he looks at me<\/span><\/p>\n

and speaks to me<\/span><\/p>\n

like the man he thinks I am<\/span><\/p>\n

but also thinks I\u2019ll never be.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I play footstep sounds on a Bluetooth speaker,<\/span><\/p>\n

scrub the video to the last 15 seconds,<\/span><\/p>\n

put city soundscapes in the cue.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remember what it feels like to be caught.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bradlee Thomas (trigger warning: assault, blood)   I love to lie in puddles of red and pretend it\u2019s my final day.   I sprawl out the contents of the purse I know that he will do the same to.   I practice how to fall down gracefully after he grabs me from the back by… <\/p>\n

Read more Prey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_theme","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-356","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/356\/revisions\/358"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/21-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}