On his hands and knees under an unnatural orange red-tinged sky

                                                      

his shadow groped beneath him
askew at his sides                                                                                                                          before and behind him                                                                                                              shuddering larger and blacker by degrees                                                                                                      

then faded

                    then oozing into the surrounding red-tinted earth

                                                                                             

he crawled
because he was fearful to take to a knee   make a silhouette
etch a target
he was afraid to rise upright
and run
                                                   

crawling 

fingers alternated between biting at the loose earth

frightened of falling up

and wormed their way into the soil

like burrowing insects

                                                                        in the disturbed loam and grit

his fingers were queer antennae

they found hard bits

and finding them he rooted at them like a pig

snuffing and snorting

working at them with bitter fingernails

                                                                 gaining slight leverage he turned them

turned them with his nails  his fingertips

disturbed their underground cradles

he grunt  and grunted

                                                                                                                      

and loosening  they turned more freely
he worried a finger under them 
stabbed and stabbed with it
 

he pulled and pulled

 

loosening

he yanked  yanked

and giving way

he tore at the bits

a gob a clot of earth came free

and flipped

and the hardness he fingered

he dowsed

broke ground   upended in the redburning light

Revealled

the bits

white

pinked under the descending hue

pieces

bits of bone

and the bits unearthed                                                                                                                  purchased more leverage  and became lengths of bone

ulnas radii femurs phalanges ribs and clinging s-curled spines

single vertebrae

ballheaded bone and smashed socket remnants

toothy mandibles

cracked and split  emptied bowls of skulls

he rooted in a graveyard

unearthing shallow mass graves

they  woven ribbons of pits lacing this gaunt terrifying field

                                                                   at its edges  its penumbra of light

beyond where he crawled

he watched tall shadows arch their backs  curious of what he found

and seeing

seeing they faltered

waved and bent

                                                                                                       

the shadows  sheaves of unkept grass

bowed their seeded beards

nodded

and clenched their eyes tightshut 

 

he tried crawling towards them to escape the rancid yard

but sensing his want to approach

they buckled

they touched their brows to the black earth

their shafts

became disjointed and crumbled

until they too were dead

rusted brown chaff

once great wide swathes

alive  fresh and green

dead

mouldering

and he 

was the only difference                                                                                                                         the only reason

his physical presence had encroached

he                                                                                                                                                        and the bones and their mangy gristle

he

scouring this old battleground where lives and bodies were annihilated

destroyed by Will and murderous machinery

by whining bullets  thrusted bayonets  slashing sabers  steelshoed horses commanded 

by their riders to stomp prostrate men to death                                                                                  

then

 

   then the dogs of War descended

snarling over scraps that still crawled and screamed as their bones were twisted out from their joints

their meaty bones rendered  pulled in a tug-of-War between shaking beasts

their massive heads and greedy jaws wanting  and knowing glut

unsatisfied

and splintering stolen bones for its warm fat marrow within

then

their bellies swollen and filled

they retired

they lazily lap the gore from their paws and forelegs

unconsciously they plop beside pools of purple blood and play at them with bemused tongues

they curled their lips  raised the flesh of their muzzles

and with their incisors

they nibble at clots  and knots woundup with hair and clinging earth

it smelled of Rot

a breeze broke out from the tall rush of distant green grass

tingling  perfumed

scented like rain

misting his face

anointing his back 

wetting his arms and legs

trembling quickly up into his nostrils

he rolled onto his back

stuck his tongue out of his mouth to savor it

its indescribable fertility refreshment                                                                                                                              

                                                     and Suddenly the air is scorched by hot ashes

if

only he could rise

if he could get to his feet

and run

stumbling to escape

through the tall balustrade of trees holding the field   hemming it

confining and concealing it

as if

only the trees could stop the desperation of the graves and the old battles from growing 

madder   and madder

and madder

2319,  Super Moon Saturday,  9  8. 14