Beast

                 Fallsburg, New York, August 20, 2002

She looked like milk.
She smelled
like vines curled with fruit.

Hunger with no form
propelled me
toward her, one maw.

I grabbed, clawed,
ran—on two legs,
same as you.

I heard yells,
tasted, knew
the meat was wrong

and dropped it at the edge
of the forest
where I fell.

She was Esther.
She is swaddled in a human shawl.
She always will be mourned.

I lie in the body bag where I belong.