When I write
I think I am more influenced
by the the depths of the ocean,
the gradual crawl of clouds,
the impression your body leaves
when it's wrapped into mine;
than I am by any other concept
or external force.

A breath of gin
And I'm stolen
To summer weather
Hemingway novels
And an unyielding
Lack of purpose

I'll never overcome these scars
Riddling my body like prizefighters
I've watched the sky fall at midnight
And clouds race to the horizon
Felt the sting of a scorpion
Licked the venom from a snake
******* too many
Cautious too much
Wasted the chances
Ruined it all
Tasted defeat
Only to savor the taste

I've missed those I shouldn't have missed
And left the ones that stitched to my side
Kissed you moments too late
Laid dead flowers on your pretty grave
Left myself hanging from the swinging noose
******* too many
Cautious too much
Wasted the chances
Ruined it all
Tasted defeat
Only to savor the taste

Overstayed my welcome
I'm always leaving too soon
******** too many
Cautious too much
Wasted the chances
Ruined it all
Tasted defeat
Only to savor the taste

When wandering
Thru graveyards
Of aged tombstones
And soiled earth
I breathe Death in
So that they may know
Living once again

Sweet Italian lips and her coffee kiss
Crawl back to me beneath the sheets
Lace my arms thru her skin
Savor her lingering caress
I taste her sin, I take her in
Tracing the desire of her curves
Feeding the ache in her moans
Until the morning star shines
Pulled away from midnight
And our moonlit embrace

You got the body I'd like to shatter

Cut open myself on your smile

I'll bleed eternal for an eclipse

A touch I couldn't die without

Watch the sky rain glass
Crystal clouds and their deviousness
For my dreams
Will they come back to being?

Burn explosions into my eyes
So I that I might see you
As always, one last time

{Waiting for the lights to come on}
{Waiting for the sun to go nova}
{Waiting for the end of where I am to lie}

**Don't try to touch these splintered ribs
They cage a beast you can't understand

Break to sacrifice
Peel back the sight
I've always thought
In glitch and grind

Lay salt on my tomb
And bleed me open wounds

Serpent tongues
Solicit the verbs
Of ****** euphoria

Cut open my ribs
And cradle inside
I hold you tight
When the sun turns

I'll build you a home
Inside fractured hearts
If you split apart
And sever heaven

Lay salt on my wounds
And call me to your tomb

I'll divide you a house
Inside fractured hearts
If you spit on
And sever heaven

When I'm deep in it
                            Can you just give in
When I finish it
                    Can you just give in

What have we done
                         What have you become
Do you feel as one
                      When we come undone

What we've come for
                         You've got to give up
What you've come from
                               We've got to give up

Cities and their streets crumbling
Bodies falling from the sky
Hitting the ground twitching
Am I going mad here?

Apparitions without faces
On the edge with nowhere to go
The fragilness haunts me

Like a story I've read before
Like a story I've written before

Candles in the window
Flickering with their flames
Casting shadows

Children dawn masks
Staring with their black eyes

Watch the sun in the sky
It fades slowly like a whisper

How did I get here?

Erosion, disintegrate

I can't stay

I've got the answers
To questions I never thought to ask
Torn from pages of forgotten books
Yesterday remains gone

How do I get back
To where life still breaths?
Yesterday remains gone

Abandoned or aborted

*death still grows after the sunflowers are plucked

You help me tear it apart

             But I...

But I can't help
    But think about the fall

            Please send help
   Save us all
                I've been waiting

                To ignore deliverance

      Ourselves are burning
      Ourselves are glitching
      Ourselves are ours

You finger the deepest
    Shades of grey

Peel away
                  Dissolving

But you...
                     You stripped the enamel

And watched it slip away

         Please send help
I've tasted too much
               I've been waiting
            
               To ignore your touch

      Ourselves are burning
      Ourselves are glitching
      Ourselves are *ours

I'm sitting here all alone
Writing ****** poetry
On my cellphone
Listening to Depeche Mode
Thinking about a forgotten time
That feels too long ago
When this house was a home
Where these scars were formed
And how they never healed
And sometimes I wonder
If they ever will

David Lynch sings from the stereo
I sing along to the drone of the living room fan
Ice cold gin and soda in my hand
My dog looks at me like I'm the weird one...
Thursday night fun.

Ive been looking for vacancies
In all the wrong arms
My callused hands claw the grave
For one more conversation
Hear your laughter change with the seasons
Jewelry fading and roses dying
I couldn't find a way to keep you from falling
There were lies and lips were moving
I remember the cuts but not the reasons

I
Failed
Again

I forgot the meaning
Couldn't find an idea worth believing
Took some time off
And saw you dancing
Beneath the flickering city lights
Come what may and might've been
Screaming curses and silent treatments
I couldn't find the words to write
To keep you living another night

I
Failed
Again

Drained* in stereo
Eyes toward vacated heavens
Deadlight escaping death

To sit and wait upon the edge of the great nothing
Arms wrapped and fingers entwined
Watching the sun dive down
Dimming into obsidian

Mountains erode to sand
And water overtakes
Stormy oceans of desolation

"We are a glimpse in the eye of cosmic decay
Dictating the future words of voices unspoken"

...I've wished the world away
Too many times to count...

I've watched the last days
And the tides change their ways
And the skies cease to be


I've seen the world die
But once in my life

And once was *just enough

The snake sheds its skin
To begin life again
Slither, crawl into your tomb
Entering the open wound

   But I'd give it all away
   For one more memory
   To slip this poisonous kiss
   Between your lips

     I can't control this any more
Peeling off layers from before
     I can't control this any more
Shedding the skin I once wore
     I can't control this any more

Coiled on the ground
Sheltered from the sun
Your desire has me done
Buried deep, never found

   But I'd give it all away
   For one more memory
   To slip this poisonous kiss
   Between your lips

     I can't control this any more
Peeling off layers from before
     I can't control this any more
Shedding the skin I once wore
     I can't control this any more

               I am constricted
               I am conflicted
               I am restricted
               I am inflicted

   But I'd give it all away
   For one more memory
   And slip this poisonous kiss
   Between your lips

I can't control this
     (Peeling off the layers)
I can't control this
     (Shedding my skin)
I can't control this

Anymore.

I've forgotten how to write
I hold this pen like a knife
Threatening to cut and hack
Scars I thought had healed
But still bleed profusely
Coloring the black and white
Of my unfinished tattoos

::The ones I got to erase the memories of you...How fitting it seems they do the opposite of their intentions::

                    There is ink and blood on the paper in front of me
                    Jackson *******'s Rorschach Test

What is it I'll see I wonder
As the words bleed from me;
Draining and filling lines
              That will be crumbled and discarded into the waste basket
              Along side empty bottles, used condoms, and undelivered love letters

The next page awaits this emptiness.

I can feel your broken heart
It's beating
Come a little closer to me
I'll hold you tightly
I'll wipe away your tears
And kiss away your fears
Come a little closer to me
I will help to heal your heart

Ooom-chta ooom-chta ooom-chta boom boom boom-chta ooom-chta tck tck tck tck tck tck chtachtachta chhhhhhhs ooom-chta ooom-chta BOOM

Back that *** up into some more block rockin' beats.

But nothing ***** me as hard
As when you're whispering in my ear
Telling me goodbye for the last time

I'm so far removed
From your path
I laugh

My laughter echoes in the silence

I spit out another piece of carnivorous cancerous lung & stub out the carrion embers of another cigarette as I watch her silhouette slink  

out from behind the curtains & out of view with a serpentine slither that sent shivers down my spine. I lost my breath. I felt my insides

constricting. Felt my skin stretch tight across my cracking & fracturing rib bones & begin to separate, tearing my flesh on jagged

split bones & then I shook the fear from my head & caught my breath. She was heaven & hell & my apocalypse. A beautiful rhythm of dissonance

cutting into me with a cadaverous smile that spreads across her face so wickedly. She holds perfection in one hand & obsession in the other.

She walked out of view, leaving me beneath the old oak tree that stood outside her window. I used to climb it when we were younger. I walked

from beneath the sheltered shade of the tree & back into the acidic rain  pouring down from ominous obsidian clouds & slowly felt my skin

melting from my muscles & then my bones, leaving a trail of myself in the wake of my stumbling footsteps. My body will be a pile of ashes

blowing thru the dark tangled strands of her hair when she looks outside. My death rattle shaking her from memories of her long dead friend

who used to climb the tree outside of her window to see her...

Girl,
you're hotter than 98 degrees,
if we were N*Sync and got 2ge+her,
I'd be your Backstreet Boy
and take you to O-Town.

Let's wake up early
Dressed in each others arms
Beneath the covers all wrinkled
From a night spent less than sleeping
Let's bookmark our bedside books
And head down to the cafe
Sit in the morning air
And drink our coffees
And smoke our cigarettes
Until we feel life in our veins come alive
Let's talk about books, writings, romance
Lets talk about anything that sounds beautiful from your lips
Let's plan out our whole day
With site seeing and adventures
Then ignore them as we retreat
Back to our hotel room to end our day
As it began
Dressed in each others arms
Wrapped beneath wrinkled covers
And not sleeping

I saw you from across the room
Locking stares with your icy eyes
Dancing between the hookah smoke and piano notes
The black dress you wore hugged every inch of you perfectly
Showing off the glamour of your feminism

Silhouetted in the dimness of light
Your hips swayed to an invisible beat
Some jazz lament, some pop secret

You were all alone
Surrounded by all your friends
And everyone you've never known

I drank away at the scotch eating away at my insides
Building the courage to whisper a simple hello

The air smelled thick of cocktails and speakeasies,
Intense conversations of after-midnight intents

With a draft twirling thru the darker strands of your hair
You nursed some drink
I couldn't tell what it was
But I imagined tasting whiskey on your lips
And smelling innocence lost on your breath

There was feigned laughter and a cracked smile
A hint of teeth and a vicious tongue

You were the one
I'd been waiting my whole life on

I adjusted the noose around my neck
Thumbed my hands into my pockets
With nervous twitches
And made my way across the room
Drawn to you like Death to a tomb

I parted the haze of wafting smoke
Hooked by the gaze you worked the room with so well

I felt the chill in the air warm as I neared
And I watched you closely
Like a beast hunting its prey
I could see it in your eyes
You were doing the same

I asked you to dance as you finished the last sip of your drink
And sat the glass down on the table with ice cubes clinking seductively
You smiled, baring teeth I wanted to feel deep in my skin

I pulled you closer and smelled your perfume
The smell of intoxication and the crisp nighttime air on a full moon

We held each other tight
One hand on the small of your back
The other entwined in your grasp

With your head cradled to my chest
We danced slow even tho the song playing was loud, fast, and crazy

The room disappeared into an obsidian blackness as we danced
Holding each other close and tight,
Wearing our groove into the floor

You were the one
I've been waiting my whole life for

You were the one
I've been waiting my whole life for

You were the one
I've been waiting for



And then I watched you disappear
As the world came back into focus
And the lights snapped on, brighter than a thousand suns

And then I watched you disappear
As the music stopped
And all the drinks had been drunk, the intoxicated stumbling home

I watched you as you disappeared
Leaving me dancing
Alone

Would you break your silence
As the tide washes over me?
Lend me your lips for one last kiss
Before I'm thrown into the awaiting abyss
It's become abysmal to walk the surf
Without holding your hand in mine
And the soft pallet of your laughter
Drowning out the music from seashells

It makes what time we have
Feel like a short eternity
But names written in the sand
Have a tendency to wash back out to sea

There's footprints I follow
Will they lead me to the beating in your chest
Or are they where I've already been?
Have I touched the tender ache of your skin
The way I dig my toes into the sand
And feel the ocean caress me like your finger tips
Have I known this all along
Or have I sank to the bottom
Lungs filled with melodies of woeful maladies?

It makes what time we have
Feel like a short eternity
But names written in the sand
Have a tendency to wash back out to sea

When the tide comes in
Would you break your silence
Would you struggle to save me from my fate
Would you cry if you were too late
When the tide comes in
Would you forgive me for not staying

When the tide comes crashing in
There's a tendency to wash back out to sea

It makes what time we have
Feel like a short eternity
But names written in the sand
Have a tendency to wash back out to sea

I don't like being jaded
But the passion has left me
I can't fathom feeling
Too cynical to be so hopeless
Romantic nights seem like fiction
I wait for you but I know I wait in vain

Cause I'm right back where I started
And the world is moving
But I swear I'm standing still watching it all go by

Can't believe it never meant anything to you
But I should've known better
The way you ignored all my handwritten love letters
Yeah I should've known better
Than to let you trick me with your smile

Cause I'm right back where I started
And the world is moving
But I swear I'm standing still watching it all go by

I can't fathom feeling
Too cynical to be this hopeless
Romantic moments
Too hard to imagine
I can't fathom

Cause I'm right back where I started
And the world is moving
But I swear I'm standing still watching it all go by

This jaded passion
I can't imagine it passing
I hold onto where you used to sleep
There's a different body
Lying next to me
So why does this bed feel so empty?

I'm right back where I started
And the world is moving
But I swear I'm standing still watching it all go by

Right back where I started
(But I'm still standing)
Right back where I started
(But I'm still standing)

I remember
Can't seem to forget
All those nights we spent together
They keep on coming back
I try to drink them all away
Pour a double shot of whiskey
But like a bad time
They always seem to stay

Oh whoa woe whoa
Can't get you off my mind
You're like a ba-ad time
And these memories
They're my weapon of self destruction
Oh whoa woe whoa
Can't you get out of my mind?

Well it's been a long time
But I can't seem to shelve
All these recollections
Like your record collection
And the way you looked
Reading your favorite book

I know it's time to move on
But you're still in these melodies
Just humming along
To awkward love songs
And it goes:

Oh whoa woe whoa
Can't get you off my mind
You're like a ba-ad time
And these memories
They're my weapon of self destruction
Oh whoa woe whoa
Can't you get out of my mind?

I know it's time to move on
But you're still in these melodies
Just humming along
While I strum this guitar
To awkward love songs
Singing:

Oh oh oh
Whoa woe whoa
Oh oh oh
Whoa woe whoa

Can't get you off my mind
You're like a ba-ad time
And these memories
They're my weapon of self destruction
Oh whoa woe whoa
Can't you get out of my mind?

You won't see me anymore
I've lost faith in what I was living for
Could tell you the moment it happened
But you wouldn't listen
And I hate wasting my breath

I count the scars you left on me
Not all of them I can see
But I know they're there
Because they ache so deeply

I dress to the nines
Like I'm going to a funeral
Gonna have fun with a gun
You'll see what I mean
When the whiskey's gone

All this silence is getting harder to kick
Lets play a game of Russian roulette
Ill load the barrel and take the first hit
There's one empty chamber
And I'm liking my odds

There's no room in my life
With all of this empty space
It's funny how late at night
I can remember your taste
But I won't recall the details
Or the smile on your face

All this silence is getting harder to kick
Lets play a game of Russian roulette
Ill load the barrel and take the first hit
There's one empty chamber
And I'm liking my odds

Pull the trigger (Don't worry about the mess)
Pull the trigger (If there's one left behind)
Pull the trigger (It's only a wedding dress)
Pull the trigger (You can have it dry cleaned)
Pull the trigger (After we make it a crime scene)

You won't see me anymore
I've lost faith in what I was living for
Could tell you the moment it happened
But you wouldn't listen
And I hate wasting my breath

I count the scars you left on me
Not all of them I can see
But I know they're there
Because they ache so deeply

Pull the trigger (Don't worry about the mess)
Pull the trigger (If there's one left behind)
Pull the trigger (It's only a wedding dress)
Pull the trigger (You can have it dry cleaned)
Pull the trigger (After we make it a crime scene)

Lets play a game of Russian roulette
Ill load the barrel and take the first hit
There's one empty chamber
And I'm liking my odds

Some people say

That you need to be fixed

But I like it 

Just the way you are

When you fall apart

My broken girl 

With a broken heart

You’re just as beautiful

In your ache

As when you pretend

To not be awake

When we’re in our bed

Wrapped in sheets so tight

And my arm drifts

Over you to pull you closer

And I whisper words

You long to hear 

And words I’ve longed to say

You’ll always be my favorite heartache

My perfectly broken girl

With a broken heart

There's so much depth to your eyes
The way they squint and tug at your frown
When you wake up wearing your bed head
And see me about to drown
Do you think it will be worth it
To close your eyes again and sleep in?
If tomorrow never comes
Then we'll never have to leave this bed

But I'm a fool of yours
For every word I've never said
And if it comes from me inside out
To tear away your clothes
And see the beauty in your dance
Then I'm here baring my teeth
For a taste of your romance

So write the saddest thought you have
Write your biggest fear
Now tell me darlin
What do you really have to lose?
Is it the thought that's too close
For you to hold dear?
Clutching heartache like its a fashion statement
The point of this
It's all exaggerated
You're the perfect specimen of who you are
You're the empty hole in my heart

It's another night and we're playing with knives
Getting sick on absinthe
You hold your words to my throat
And ask for the truth
Wanting me to lie every step of the way
There's danger in the way you love me so dearly
It's tender
I surrender
Don't cut any deeper
There's only so much of me I can hold on to
When I'm around you
Surrounding myself with the buttons off your dress
I know I've made a mess
And bathed in bleach
But I wanted that dead hue
Only to entertain you

But I'm a fool of yours
For every word I've never said
And if it comes from me inside out
To tear away your clothes
And see the beauty in your dance
Then I'm here baring my teeth
For a taste of your romance

So write the saddest thought you have
Write your biggest fear
Now tell me darlin
What do you really have to lose?
Is it the thought that's too close
For you to hold dear?
Clutching heartache like its a fashion statement
The point of this
It's all exaggerated
You're the perfect specimen of who you are
You're the empty hole in my heart

Why do you call it a fault
When I make you smile?
Why do you call it a lie
When I take your hand in mine?
Is it something I did
To make you wish me dead?

So write the saddest thought you have
Write your biggest fear
Now tell me darlin
What do you really have to lose?
Is it the thought that's too close
For you to hold dear?
Clutching heartache like its a fashion statement
The point of this
It's all exaggerated
You're the perfect specimen of who you are
You're the empty hole in my heart

And if it comes from me inside out
To tear away your clothes
And see the beauty in your dance
Then I'm here baring my teeth
For a last chance at your romance

Bring your own ****. I
have plenty of alcohol.
Lets start this party.

There was envy twitching in her fingertips as she watched the hands of another woman hold the hands of the man that was once hers only a few months before. She balled her hands into a fist. Clenching tighter and tighter until her nails dug into her flesh and the palms of her hands started to trickle blood between the growing whiteness of her knuckles. Her eyes were welling up with tears that she held back long enough to see his and her lips and tongues entwine and their bodies pull closer together so that any amount of space between their two bodies dissolved.

She collapsed where she stood giving into her tears and closed her eyes hoping to never open them again…

Maggie threw a weak left jab at the upper torso of Jacob to throw him off balance and swung hard with her right arm towards his exposed left cheek, connecting her small fists on his flesh with such impact that it immediately began to swell up. He retaliated with a well placed right hook to the side of Maggie's arm that sent her moving sideways before she regained her footing and answered back with a succession of jabs to his midsection.

Sweat poured down both of their faces mixing with the blood from cuts and bruises that both had received in one of the earlier bouts. They were now in the sixth round and neither showed any determination in losing.

Jacob brought his right leg up for a straight kick towards Maggie's stomach but she caught his leg and rotated it clockwise knocking him off balance and falling chest first to the mat. Maggie attempted to a heel lock but could not gain enough leverage to lock it in and Jacob slipped out of her grip and got back to his feet and shook it off. Maggie snarled thru her mouth guard and spun around with a roundhouse, catching her foot just short of hard enough on his left calf, sending numbness up and down his leg. She went in for a double leg takedown but was caught off guard when Jacob raised his right knee and connected it with the left temple on her head. Her vision began to go hazy and she swung wildly with a left and then a right before she was able to shake the cobwebs clear and see him throwing a straight, hard, and fast right squarely at her face.

She ducked less than an inch before his fist would've met the bridge of her nose and she came up with her fists balled tightly in an uppercut and landed on the bottom of his jaw sending him reeling backwards and losing his balance he fell on the ground. Maggie rushed over and got on top of him in guard position and began raining down lefts and rights to his face which he was blocking. She threw a few shots at his side causing him to arch into a kidney shape and bring his arms away from his face. Maggie grabbed his left arm and went for a Fuji armbar and locked it in tightly, feeling the joint of his elbow bending sharply on her pelvic bone. She arched her back harder, tightened her thighs around his arm and twisted the upper portion of his wrist to the left until she felt the familiar feeling of a tap out on her legs. She released the grip and stood up, ******, bruised, sweaty, but not beaten.

"Truly you love me?" she whispered beneath the soft sound of his kisses which started near the sharp edge of her hip bones working slowly up, tracing every inch of every slender curve until his mouth met the softness of her neck and the whiskers of his beard tickled her slightly and caused her to tremble and her toes to curl. She smiled and bit lightly on her bottom lip.

"What makes you so sure," he inquired thru a mischievous grin. He could feel the warmth of her skin touching his and in this moment he knew that he loved her and only her deeply but he did not want to say so just yet and played coyly with his lips on the nape of her neck and entangled his fingers in the golden blonde strands of her hair, pulling just enough so that she arched her back and ****** her ******* into the hardness of his chest.

"It's in the way that your mouth moves across me."

"Perhaps my mouth is only hungry?"

"Perhaps. But then how do you explain your hands?"

"They have a mind of their own."

"A wonderful mind it is."

She ached for his mouth to be on hers, to feel the course hairs of his beard on the softness of her cheeks, for the hard lines of his hands to cup her ******* and squeeze her ****, for him to be the only moment she would ever have. She wiggled out beneath his force and in doing so he lay supine with her on top. Her hair was hanging down like a curtain over his face so that all he could see was her icy blue eyes and beautiful red lips. His hands moved across the smooth tan skin of her back until she grabbed his arms and traced them with her hands up to his, ensnared their fingers, and pinned his arms above his head.

"You're my prisoner now."

"You are my warden?"

"I am."

"My crime?"

"So cruel, it is unmentionable."

"I'm innocent. I swear." He said unbelievingly.

"We are all innocent in our own wicked ways."

"You are not innocent."

"No, I am the devil and I've come for your soul," she laughed.

He lunged his face forward to meet her lips but she pulled away, smiling.

"You haven't served your time yet."

Her tongue was tracing the canines of her teeth and there was a growl to her voice that made her seem like a wild beast and this drove him insane on the inside. He feigned struggling to lift his arms up away from her pinning him down but liked that she was on top of him and did so only in play.

"Don't I get time served for being good?"

"Yes. But I don't want you to be good."

"But I am an angel."

"Your halo is held up by horns."

He tired of their banter and raised his arms and flipped her over on to her backside and lay on top of her once more. The sheets on the bed were now completely tangled around their bodies so that they had cocooned themselves and were pressed very tightly together. His mouth met her mouth and they shared a long kiss that awakened both the insides and the outsides of their bodies.

His eyes met hers and her lips smiled and her face creased beautifully.

"Truly, you are the only one I love."

"Tell me something that no one else knows darling" she crooned to me as I ran my fingers thru strands of her golden blonde hair before grabbing it and wrapping a fist full of strands around my hands and pulling tightly, moving in for a rough kiss on her soft lips. She bit my lip and drew blood. I bit hers and she yelped as if she had had a small ******. Her body became weak beneath my touch.

"You've ruined me for the rest of my life."

"I said to tell me something no one knew, not something that is dreadfully obvious to even the town drunkard."

"I am the town drunkard."

"City drunkard."

"State drunkard."

"Earth drunkard."

"THE drunkard," I roared and pulled her closer to me, feeling the ache of her skin as it collided into mine. Her breathing was heavy. Rapturous. She smelled of lust and passion that only comes in the moment of being caught doing a thing that should not be done. I inhaled her. I wanted to destroy her so that no one else could ever know her the way I do.

"You're mine."

"Oh am I now?"

"Yes. Now."

"Well then. Own me."

"I don't want to own you."

"Oh? What is it you want then," she asked with a slight tremble in her voice.

"I want to break you as you've broken me."

"What if I am already broken?"

"Then I will take you."

"Take me."

I once had a dream that I went on a hunting trip in Africa with Roosevelt and Hemingway.

We each bagged lions the size of elephants and they each had large tusks that curved upwards towards the sun and mouths that opened as wide as hippos and were as tooth filled and hungry as a crocodile.

They charged at us and we did not hunt until the blacks of their eyes were on us.

Roosevelt shot first and hit his beast in the front right leg before taking aim again and firing, the bullet tearing cleanly thru the neck and the lion fell to the ground.

Next was Hemingway and he roared as loud as the lion charging him and with one shot targeted at the animal's heart brought it down.

As the wildness neared me I jumped into the air and landed on the back of the lion. I grabbed his mane tightly and swung my arm beneath his neck and, with knife in hand, slit the lions throat causing him to slide into the dusty ground and rolled me off into the laughter of both Hemingway and Roosevelt.

The lions were field dressed. The meat was fried, cooked, roasted, jerkied, devoured. What wasn't edible was left for the scavengers to pick clean.

Their heads are now mounted on the living room walls.