[Brian Watson]

L4 isn't quite idiomatic. If I may be racially crude for a moment to explain my point, one might refer to "a black", or to a "coal black negro", but would it be natural to say "a coal black"? For the same reason, "... that gangly, felt-hat black whose... " doesn't sound quite right. I had to read the sentence a couple times before it clicked that "black" was being used as a noun.

I'm not sure I understand the title. Is it to underscore that the black man hunts for food what the white speaker hunts for sport? Or is it intended to suggest "food for thought?"

Other than that, I like this one a lot.

[Kevin Cutrer]

Definitely the best so far. I agree with Brian's critique of the "felt-hat black" image.

I agree that the title doesn't do much for this one, and if it is meant to suggest that the better hunter here hunts for food while the narrator hunts for sport, as Brian suggests, I'm afraid I was too dense to pick that up on the first couple of reads.

Anyway, I love this one.

[Gregory Dowling]

Yes, a powerful sonnet and a very acute analysis by Catherine. Just one grammatical curiosity as regards Catherine's comment: surely "laid" is the correct form for the past tense of the transitive verb, rather than a colloquial form? Or is this another Brit/US difference?

[Chris Childers]

Damn good. I just wonder with the others why it's appearing in a bakeoff for a second time. Maybe a book-keeping mistake by the author (whom I don't need to guess)?

Chris