by John Woods

I know it’s true
because it happened to me
as I stood alone
in the mourning moonlight,
after they planted
my love in the ground
With the stars throbbing down
on my head and the dead.
And the dead.
And the dead.
And the dirt at my feet,
aching and gnawing and pawing and clawing,
and the trees creeping closer,
and the ants,
and the worms,
and the sky, creeping closer
until there they all were
gleaming bright in the moonlight.
All the stars.
And the ants.
And the dirt.
And my love in the dirt,
with their horrible teeth
and their diglossic tongues
gleaming all around me,
and their red lips smacking…

 

John Lemuel Woods is a NEPA Native who acquired the travel bug while he was in the Army, and he has since  moved around the country every few years to follow the sun and/or his latest dreams, or to escape from the sun and/or his latest nightmares.