A wild animal

Artist Statement:

I created this poem as part of a project where I combined plants, poetry, and art. “A wild animal” appeared in Utah State University’s Projects Gallery alongside some of my other pieces as the culmination of my project. For this specific piece, I wanted to capture the fear of intimacy, the fear of being nothing more than a scared, wild animal, being unable to accept love from other people. The red thread I used to black out the poem matches the plants affixed to the page, the red twig dogwood. I wanted the words (or the lack thereof) to be the same color as the plant to show that their voices are the same. Both red, both alive in a way, both speaking through silence.

basil payne (they/them) is a poet-artist living in Logan, UT. Their work can be found in the literary magazine Sink Hollow and in Utah State University's Projects Gallery.