Hunters at Midnight

(CW: Attempted SA)

***

Learn your limits, young.
Some drugs are strong—
Some overwhelm
The senses and
Other things we use
To measure our mood,
and comfort toward
The state of existence.

Escape the drudgery
Of sitting alone
To join the chorus
Of the drunk and horny masses,
sitting alone.
At least I have a drink,
A seltzer—carbonated
And injected with the flavors
Of our industrial world.
The syrup catches in my throat,
Like the backfire of the vapes struck
In our high school bathrooms,
Yet I still prefer it to beer.

A flashing movement dispels
Vagrant fancy’s.
Some escape the drudgery to hunt,
To catch ensnared fish, whose
Bloated bellies push to the surface.
Eyes like dark saucers,
Akin to a deer staring at the branches,
not questioning the shake of leaves,
Or the slide of a cold steel bolt
before a burst of thunder.
I wish a hunter would come for me,
Yet my meat is tarnished,
rotting within.
I smell nice—
Like Lavender,
But scent is rarely reliable.
Wicked men hunt by sight,
So I watch their eyes
To find their fingers
Dexterous and sober,
Pointing, expressing, waiting
As a hunter might,
Till the moment was seized,
Before my own immoral sight.

The man’s drug,
Control, would
Demonstrate an absurd
Lesson to the drunk
And the horny, whose
Deserved punishment
Should never be subjugation.
At the point of a finger
The fury of other men,
Whose drug came from blood,
Was therein exercised.
The doe is stunned
As if the hunter crashing
Through the canopy was still
Not enough evidence.

Oh, what dreadful fate,
Which might have befallen
Our sister,
Who only wanted a night
Of friendship and revelry,
Yet Whose fate was a 10 am
Therapy appointment
Next Tuesday, followed
By a life questioning
Whether the blame lied
Upon the young doe
For Men’s hunger.

I leave the glass there
With nothing left,
But a red kiss.
Does this make me right—
To take the misfortune of another
Because I happened to be sober
And light in the purse?
I guess I need reminding too,
Not to question
Gifts given—
Even ones from
The shadows.