A Killer on the Rampage


There’s a track
of desolate forest
by the power lines

All of it was
razed away
a few years ago

Small trees
rosehips
milk thistle
and scotch broom

fill the void
fumbling
to rebuild
after
ecocide proper

I started coming
through here
on my way down
to the river

Whose real name
I don’t know
and if I did
I wouldn’t
speak it

--

I smelled
putrification
in the air
and I followed
the wind
backwards

To a small patch
of larger
denser trees

I found 2 corpses
nestled
in the brush
sinking in
to the sandy
undersoil

Their skin
wilting together
like conjoined twins

--

One day
I went down
an out of commission
logging road

I found a pile
of bones
and made
a shrine

adorning it
with wild
summer flowers
and evergreens

When i
came back
a few days
later

The shrine
had been
decimated

And the bones
that still
had flesh on them
were strewn about
messily
on the gravel

--

I started seeing
more and more
corpses
more
boldly placed

along the
walking paths
and roads
leading down
to the river

One time
I saw
ribs splayed open
glowing iridescent
in the dusky
evening light

Another time
at another place
a bundle of fur
a gelatinous mass
and a
disembodied skull
turned upside down

run over
by multiple
pick up trucks
patches of
glossy tongue
glistening neath
splotches of dirt

Near a small
creek
there was a small
skeleton
strewn about
violently

hip bone
submerged
in a shallow
water pool
bones
down the bank

head
nowhere to be
seen

I’ve seen
14 or 15 corpses now

--

All the statistics
in the world
can’t squelch
my
primal fears

I have 225g
of concentrated capsicum
on me
at all times

And
a large stick

If the killer comes
for me
I’ll be ready

--

I saw his prints
today
in the mud

They’re bigger
than all the
dog prints
more round
in shape

and the claws
are protracted

There were streaks
behind the marks

He was
running somewhere

--

The carrion have
all subsided
and I’m
the last scavenger

I ask the spirits:
is it okay?
can I have
the hooves?

Only if
you dance
with them

I agree

and slip
the dark
brown sheaths
off the ruby
glistening
cartilage