words

bastard children god left behind,
i’ve seen you lumber in the dark
far away and safe from their law,
i’ve watched you drag your quarry
across the blacktop rivers that stretch
across the face of the earth.

footprints replaced with thread tracks,
i’ve heard you catcall in the night,
the shrill laughter of debauchery,
the marble pattern in your eye,
misplaced by the absence of holding hands
left to wander the streets alone.

and with the darkest of hearts,
i’ve watched you barrel down on the weak,
the poor, the pockmarked, the skinless,
between your crosshairs they fit so well,
i’ve smelled the fast decay of their being
carried through the midnight air.

i played my part as i passed along,
warning the child to move on,
but you aimed your headlights dead center
and broke his spine like a promise,
i watched him tremble in the dark,
i watched him shiver in the night,
i watched him die as i heard you laughing.

i know what you’ve done
and i know just as he knows
of the monster that hides beneath the skin
and inside the heart of such things,
in the shadows lurks a beast composed of static,
and i have seen you in the dark,
i’ve seen you in the night.

-S.C. Martinez