Dead girl

She walked the night
Cicadas called
The moon sighed
And the rip of the tide was shallow
Inside her body
A beat played as the veins constricted
The last of the red oxygen, mineral life
Warmth of a lingering pump
Slowed to a drip
The tingle in her fingertips numbed
The pink of her lips paled
The green of her eyes deepened
In pain with the night
She a living, once breathing, girl
She welcomed her new life
With a deep purr

She, now night
Lifted her nymph’s nose to the air
Whispers of smells
Hints of place
Rode the breeze
Sea, salt
Mangrove, must
Savannas, dry, silent shadows
Life was in the air
Sight under the moon was easy
Diffused silver rested upon the world
A would now hers to taste
A grass animal rustled in the scrub bush
A flick of her wrist
It wiggled in her hand
A sharp smell rose from the small creature
Fear and life
Mud and water
Clung to its brown fluff fur
A sniff of blood under
Muscle and skin
Not for her
She, night
Placed it aside
To return to its burrow among the river of grass

© Jennifer Sky Band. Do not reprint without permission.