The Twin
Two siblings skipping through the Forest
Laughing, they chase the Fairies by the Pond.
Happiness, Companionship
Best Friends, finding fulfillment in each other.
The didn’t see the movement of the underbrush
They didn’t pick up the scent of the stench downwind
They looked up, bewildered, the Fairies were gone
One ran, one stood frozen, when it emerged from the bush.
At first, she thought, it might be alright
The thing smiled at her warm and sincere
Nervous, she smiled back, her sister
Smothered a whimper
Hiding in the bush
She used her hands to shove in her scream
She saw her sister snatched up by the legs
Then beaten against a rock by the water
Her brains flung out across the Forest floor.
The thing held up its trophy, beaming
A she-thing appeared, belching whelps
The Twin followed the monsters, trembling
Her tear-filled eyes never leaving the lifeless body
Of her lifelong companion from the Womb.
She followed the things, all the way to their camp
She saw her sister tossed onto a heap
12 bodies pale, laid like fish from the stream
She saw the Butcher coming with his hand-axe.
It was sharp, but jagged, and twice the size
Of the Stone which used to be her sister’s favorite place
To sit and gaze at the Stars.
Entrails dripped from the Butcher’s loin cloth
She saw the hollowed out carcass of her Twin
She saw her on a spit, being cooked by the Fire
She saw the greasy beards and smiling faces
She watched from the darkness of the Night.
She crept off
The stench of the camp, the thing’s satisfied smile,
The last time she held her sister’s hand
As they skipped carelessly to the Pond, her sister's image
Sat solid as Stone
Behind her burning eyes.
Ogre, King of Gluttony and Filth
We’ll see if the Forest and all its Life was solely created
For the enlargement of your bottomless, bloated belly
For your Fetish
Your insatiable Fetish for the Flesh.
Seven Years Later
The Twin stands perched on a Tree-Branch
She catches the call from afar
That tone and pitch she listens for as close
As an infant for the sound of its Mother.
Ogre
She yelps her call to the Trees behind her
She runs, she bounds, she climbs,
She pulls herself up, conditioned
As a Refugee hiding in the branches and the foliage.
The hiss of a Snake
Calls the Mark of the Line
From her shoulders, her bow is removed
With Hawk’s eyes, she scans fragments of the Forest floor
Revealed through the branches and leaves.
That stench
Which haunted her, from every slumber she woke
Drifted up
She caught a glimpse of a greasy brown mat
the large round child-like face
An Ogre standing taller than a Grizzly.
The Ogre hears a giggle
The sweet laughter of a Human’s young
He grin’s, sniffing the air, searching for the scent;
Salivating over the taste of fresh prey.
The first Arrow lands, sliding under his knee
As soon as the sole of his foot
Lands in the center
Of the Four’s Square of No Escape
The second Arrow falls, beneath the bone of his elbow
His shouts send flocks of crows scurrying silently
Panicked,
He hops in circles, searching, confounded
A sharp yelp is fired from behind him in the Trees
The sound lands like a fist, smashing into his spine
Dropping the Ogre to its knees
He bellows out in agony, a tortured plea, ‘Mercy’,
Away it flew, fluttering its wings
Like the Golden Fairies who drink at the Pond.
The third Arrow pierces his heaving breast
He clutched the shaft, he broke it off,
He ground his teeth to the cracking
The fourth Arrow falls on his loin-cloth
Abolishing the seed he would never sow
His face falls onto the Forest floor
His tears seep into the leaves
The feet of the Twin land silent as a Lynx
She shrieks her call at the monster
Swift and sharp, it rattles the leaves
The monster rolls onto its side
He sees the figure in the mist
He sees the lethality of its Blade
Panting, he closes his eyes
Seeking the arms of resignation.
Under the canopy, on the Forest floor
Before They butchered the carcass of Gluttony
The Twin removed the heart from its chest
Raised it to the sky and gave thanks to The Most Beautiful
Then she removed its head and hauled it
To Ridge overlooking the Valley
The Valley where Gluttony found its home.
She raised the head high in the air, with both hands
She struggled underneath its weight
She screamed her announcement toward the Valley below
And heaved the Ogre’s head,
it fell down to a tumble
Dotting a line of crimson rocks
Before it ended as a battered clump of dead brain
Rolling into the Valley down below.
Then there was War.
