Self Portrait
by Laurie Kuntz

That’s me, the stick figure caught
in a cobweb.

My sparrow limbs can easily slide
out through the fragile filament,

but my fingers, stuck on sticky strands,
refuse to unclench,

and create this intricate tangle
of criss-cross gossamer.

I am both,
the spindled figure caught,

and the weaver who spins a lacey spider silk,
unable to escape and yet, comfortable

in a lattice of trapping designs.

About the Poet:

Laurie Kuntz is an award-winning poet and film producer. She taught creative writing and poetry in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. Many of her poetic themes are a result of her working with Southeast Asian refugees for over a decade after the Vietnam War years. She has published one poetry collection (Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press) and two chapbooks (Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press and Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press), as well as an ESL reader (The New Arrival, Books 1 & 2, Prentice Hall Publishers). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, Simple Gestures, won the Texas Review Poetry Chapbook  Contest. She was editor in chief of Blue Muse Magazine and a guest editor of Hunger Mountain Magazine.  She has produced documentaries on the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Law, and currently is producing a documentary on the peace process and reintegration of guerrilla soldiers in Colombia. She is the executive  producer of an Emmy winning short narrative film, Posthumous. Recently retired, she lives in an endless summer state of mind.

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