Freezer

We found corpses hoisted on metal hooks,
throats slashed, eyes, genitals missing.
We shuddered at the biting cold,
the blood-stained floor, Death's appearance
in a place more remote than we thought.
The door opened, showing darkness outside,
silhouetting a once-familiar figure, bringing
a lonely question that echoed off the vast night:
"Mother, how long have these been here?"

Transference: A Short Stanza on My Dog and My Mother

I found my puppy bludgeoned and bleeding.
My mother found me bloody and eating
the entrails of a young, tired, beaten cur.
She was happy it wasn't her.

(From a work in progress...)

There was a time
when I thought
words could carry me,
strongmen of the circus
that is my life.
But I was wrong:
I watched
the big top cave in
without any reason or rhyme,
the tightrope snapped,
a slow fall
falling
fell.
I reached up for air,
but nobody could hear me yell.