he was the last kangaroo
tawny white-bellied terribly strong
a hero
he escaped from captivity not a zoo but rather from where he had been kept
as a pet
his mate a visiting veterinarian
said is barren
she was there to breed
the family whose estate they
lived on decided to kill her
he saw the gameskeeper of the
menagerie enter the outbuilding where they were
taken her
he heard her scream NO
it was abruptly
consumed by a gunshot
she was butchered and would be
eaten
he became an ungrateful pet
not overtly
he watched he paid attention to the keepers
schedule one he assiduously
maintained because he was also scheduled if he wanted to do what he wanted to
do but not there
within two week recorded in the dirt pawmarks hidden under
broadleaf foliage he planned a dusk break when it fell the keeper anxious and distracted by his hurry to leave hed leave with him
leave a verb adornedcoloured with a wry sense of
irony
the turn-key engaged the lock
undone the door swung in he smashed his skull between his foot and one tall
concrete post that madeup part of a colonnade and fence that surrounded the
animals
had he the dexterity to
manipulate the many keys he would have freed all the animals
maybe they would learn something
by his example
they sensed his outrage and
sorrow
it was palpable among them who
humans deemed dumb beasts
outside the streets were roamed
by uniformed soldiers
dressed
to kill they looked like black
alligators teethed with weaponry and
cloaked with cyberskins and helmets to deflect paltry projectiles
no matter
he found they could betheir
heads could be crushed if they were STOMPed
he saw a young boy foolishly
confront four soldiers scream his
outrage at the top of his lungs his
tears wetting his face
the boy reminded him of himself
when his mate was murdered
had he only come upon them moments earlier he might have been able to
save the boy
a soldier grabbed himheld him by
his arms behind him while the second snapped his neck
why waste munitions on a tick
he bulldozed the two who had their
backs to himbowled them over
since the dead boy still hung in
ones handsthe other also had his back to him their arms were shouldered and strapped in holsters
fourfive
vicious STOMPs one apiece would have done it but he
wanted them to be recognisable only by their dog tags dog
tags
he returned to the other two who
were yet on the ground dazed he STOMPed
their throats
when he was to be interned at the
estate things he witnessed outside its walls were not as they were now
wandering cautiously he found the
city dotted with enclaves of rubble firedtwisted steel spines and ribs clots of
aggregate concrete fierce coloured
graffiti and unburied bodies that seemed
more to make a point than unclaimed like heads once stuck on pikes
the dead didnt wear black
alligator skins
he chose sides
he attacked small squads that had
sluffed their skins piled them indecorously leaned their long weapons against
them to eat or slack their thirsts from canteens
he STOMPed them disemboweled them
with the nails of his hindlegs and tore out their throats with his teeth
he loped away horrified by his
bloodlust and violence
had he not heard his mates cry witnessed
the boys execution he may not have assumed or resigned himself to the prickly
vengeance that percolated under his skin heated by his heart ached in his guts and they vivified by him knowing he was the last of his kind
he sought deep woods
negotiated ragtag
clusters of desperate human beings whose eyes bulged in their skulls as much
from fear as by their starvation
rail-thin emaciated
whatever he escaped from and
entered seemed to be have been persisting for a time
he browsed and grazed and kept
movingmoving away from mechanised sounds and suffering voices
the air grew humid nights grew cooler
it smelled more and more unlike anything he had ever smelled he fixated on it dumbed by it as a nail would
be dragged forward by a magnet
he was getting closer
and closer
then he heard sonorous sustained
crashing crashing and crashing what a beating something was suffering and
something else was sustaining
a
battle perhaps they battled
unrelentingly for hours and its sounds grew louder and louder with each step they began to overwhelm anything he might have
heard in lieu of them
he anticipated seeing
seeing the
warriors seeing the untold dead the
devastation
breaking through a tall brush the
powerful smell that intoxicated him rush up into his nostrils
he stood at the edge of a cliff
the sea and land and stony beaches sprawled
before him
he could not differentiate at the
horizon the vast water or the vaster sky their bluestheir blood mingled ran together
the blue was the colour of the dead
boys eyes
still
pursuing this out-of-body lust he
found it wanting he knew there was moreknew
a promise had been made him and yet was withheld
he would have to retreat into the
trees again and labour return to the flatland return to where black alligators
and violence were a threat
the boy the
boy
his mate
they were the fire in his
heart he knew that only the black mute of death could
extinguish
he anticipated some thing
he crossed the flatland following
the seas breath to a violated village that stood at its edge
more unburied bodies
it was silent except for the surf
crawling up on the yellow beach then sifting away
a long pier ran into the sea and
cut ropes tethered to posts hung down into the water
some thing beckoned him
demanded he walk out on the planks to the end of the pier
hed be utterly exposed
he couldnt swim
he wept
he wept until he saw that his
tears were repelled the sand and they crawledrolled over and over themselves towards the pier
he followed themfollowed their example
he did not look back even when something
swept across his backfear shivering his spine
he had come too far
stopping at the end of the pier
he waited stared out to sea there was nothing
finally he turned around
on the beach he saw the dead
destroyed bodies standing they looked
like scarecrows and those who had arms
held them up high reaching
a voice behind him spoke You misunderstand, they salute you -- he
turned to the voice -- they had been hearing of you; you are their vengeance
even as you avenge yourself.
in the water were nymphs he couldnt count that high the voice he heard was from their mouths their jaws and tongues moving in unison
one voice
then the many coalesced one into another twos and threes forming
one
until there was only one
the one said The people believed.
Do you believe?
Believe . . in what
Believe that what animated you,
the side you chose in the city, you pursued righteously; you will continue your struggle.
I am one being
I am one being.
You saw.
Yes
If it is your decision to pursue
your quarry, and it is your decision; I can teach you to be as I am, as we are.
I need to think I need rest
I need to sleep
Then sleep, kangaroo, maybe you
will dream and divine what you must do. I will protect you. When you decide, I
will return to you.
as he lay down and curled himself
in a ball he saw her shiver disseminate becoming one among her others
he
saw as he blinked that not all the nymphs were female as she
then sleep came
1313, Day-between-Two-Ts, 16 9.
20
