Panther Gets Loose

— Candace Williams

Picture of an erasure poem, text reads: Panther Gets Loose, gnaws his way from cage. Keepers with net, ropes, and chain spread terror in the neighborhood for miles around—a hunting party; platoons of police from three police stations doing whatever mischief. The panther is a young male, is a fine specimen of the tribe (being eighteen). Folks could hardly believe an animal could be so active. The handsome, brownish fellow had evinced desire for freedom at times—had never made any wild breaks, had seen captivity all its days. There had been no thought of the panther’s teeth in the building of the prison. Shouts of laughter, joking, merriment and carelessness suddenly changed into fear and dread when the panther liberated himself.
This poem is an erasure of the newspaper article “Panther Escapes from the Bronx Zoo” published by the New York Times in 1902.

Read more from Issue No. 7 or share on Twitter.