tongue licks my sharp claws as i see warm flesh pant up hill. Haunches heavy with meat, back heavy with rider. I leap at the horses backside claws gain purchase. Rider crashes, hot meal gallops
tongue licks my sharp claws as i see warm flesh pant up hill. Haunches heavy with meat, back heavy with rider. I leap at the horses backside claws gain purchase. Rider crashes, hot meal gallops away. I snarl at the dismounted man. Human can be good meat. He challenges me with metal. My claws taste his blood, again and again. He rushes toward a spired house of stone. Tries the locked door. I am in the porch with him. He a trapped animal like me. We press on each other. Neither tamed, die together. (My version of the local tale "The Cat and The Man")
Paul Brookes is a shop asst. His chapbooks include The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). He edits The Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.