Desertion

These two pieces are related, same subject matter written very recently. Not sure whether to make them a sequence or keep them seperate...

Abandon the Young

I have collected secrets, pressed
and carried them, next to my skin
to the twisted shade of the acacia.

There I pulled them,
mewling and toothy
from my breast - kissed
and left them, to die.

Abandoned, once seen
but only by lovers in the safety of
whispered midnight, they withered
in the arid desert grass,

for the Serengeti sun frowns
on the frail, burns the vulnerable,
and finds not grief, but promise
in death.



Savannah Moon

They have been suckled
at the breast of want,
for the instinct to offer more
has been forsaken.

Craving in the shadows, thorn-bitten
and ragged - they were chewed
by nights spent
in the jagged maw of a savannah moon.

Their brittle bones crack
under the weight of my desertion
and I leave them to find rebirth
in the marrow of the morning sun.

Poetry