Creature Speak

I.
I fell in love with monsters
and now they won’t leave
me alone.

I have banished them
from my mind and heart,

Even thought
I cloaked myself
to be hidden well,

Changed the way I move
smell, my chemistry,
my mark…

Cut off all my hair.
Cleaned up all the footprints
giving away my trail.

Yet still they linger,
never lost, always hungry,
hunting for prey,

And here I am
a docile animal
weakening the herd,

Opportunity still naked
in the cracks in my armor,
naïveté
diminishing shields.

They took up residence
in soft things,
and colonized.

II.
I used to have a fight in me.

I was a wild horse, a unicorn.
I think the monsters
liked my spirit.

But enough whips and lassos,
harnesses for riding,
breaking,

And enough restraints
to secure the taking…

Enough trying to survive
where I don’t belong,
trying to survive too long
while being bled
to feed them…

And I lost it, the fight,
the spirit,
the will.

And I can’t make new blood
fast enough to keep up
with their appetite.

I can’t make new blood
fast enough to keep up
with the speed of magic
that makes me
what I am.

Copyright © 2019, Sheiora Danu

Image: The Unicorn in Captivity, from The Unicorn Tapestries, 1495-1505, South Netherlands