A Year Spent Living Among The Hyenas Poem by Raj Dronamraju

Tenuous and tentative so as not to be eaten alive
Kept a journal of sorts documenting culture, hairstyles, scents, mating habits
Not responding to aggressive territorial displays
Such as mean comments placed among compliments
Or not very well hidden backstabbing

The mall is full of hyenas
The club is full of hyenas
She ordered a drink with her particular pack of hyenas
And listened to them talk like sailors in loud, hair raising voices

The laughter that scares the night
And throws out a perimeter of insecurity on anyone within hearing range
That's the laughter she researches through one on one interviews
"My boyfriend hit me, I slept with a stranger, my father left my mother when I was small and I never got to know him"

"I must not open my mouth "she thought
This would draw the ire of the hyenas
But I look too pretty
They are sensing a threat
They are circling me
Their purses snap open to reveal the fangs of female jealousy