Take it
All of it
Like dogs to a bone
Tear me to pieces
Leave nothing behind
Keep it all to yourself
And fight for the scraps
Of what's left of me

Cut deep
Slice me open
Drain out life
From my open wounds
Try and capture it
Bottled fragments of my being
Ignore the screaming
I'll be silent soon enough

Severe me
From mine
Till every limb's detached
And you can have one each
And maybe then be satisfied
Having finally destroyed
My form for your own pleasure

Not enough
You will find
The taste of me will linger
But what you have wont last
Long enough to sustain the hunger
You'll need more
Soon enough

So leave behind my bones
And take to the skies
In search of another weary soul
Circle wide and be patient
As their knees give in you will witness
Their spirit escape them too

They wait, they hide, they prey.
Eating carrion,
vanishing in the setting sky.
These devilish carnivorous beasts,
soaring, circling quietly.
A smell from afar, piercing the senses.
A soulless hide, or partially alive.
Morality does not exist,
they devour all, their defining nature,
seeking the infirm,
a blackened mind.
Just there to watch you die.

Be careful in this cess pool of a world if you wear your heart on your sleeve because there are vultures & wolves forever searching for their next meal. They won't think twice about consuming every inch of you, picking each bone clean. They delight in your suffering and find strength as a pack. They seek out your weaknesses and what they don't find they will surely create.

Here let me give you some fodder on which you can dine.

I had 2 surgeries this past year, one because they were looking for cancer. I have to be checked yearly, but no doubt you'll assume I somehow did something to deserve this.

Eight years ago I thought my white horse had arrived, left my job as a teacher (my room was Club Med), gave up my apartment, my car, close friends, family, and country, only to find out 2 months in that it was all a lie.

Your Pastor says divorce is not an option, so you commit to trying to make the fiction somehow work, but after years of chaos and too many grey days you consider, maybe, just maybe you deserve something better than the hand you've been dealt.

So you throw those cards into the wind and you start from your own ground zero.

Your terrified of an unknown future, but more terrified of remaining in a life so monotonous that you question why you're even bothering to wake up each day.

You prepare to put your older dog asleep, you're not sure what will come of the other, you have boxes to pack for your 9th move in 8 years at a time when families are coming together and yours is coming to an end.

Your drowning in a sea of work but you have no choice but to somehow find 28 hours in a day because success has finally shown up at your door & you've worked way too hard to watch it simply turn around and leave.

You paint nearly everyday, exhausted, but can't sleep, you can't remember your last break, let alone vacation.
Your paints are quite frankly your only motivation.

You want to scream, run, hide, find some type of escape, but you're given no such relief. All that remains is an awkward ride to the airport, a hug, and a fare thee well to a chapter of your life you wish you could've ended sooner if only you had discovered your worth.

Is that enough for you?

Because I could give you so much more...let my life story be an after dinner mint so no one has to smell my flesh on your breath.

Let the floods and fires come, I'm done with this world.
I have never belonged and I no longer care to.
An army of one, content on my own.

Then those birds stood watching
          For she was next prey

They flew around her thoughts
          In a world so grey

They scattered her rotting flesh
          Maggots infested

The vultures began to take feast
           Laying in nested

Taking every sip of sweet blood
           In her head deep

Devouring the dead memories
            Within her sleep

Slow milestones
kicked a tad further once in awhile
I stumble as I grasp and catch
a glimpse of my feeble walker days
Way up the desert road near the mountains
the pressing feeling;
I’m wasting too much time on the practical
And soon I’ll hobble my way to that high nest of the vultures;
an unnourishing drab soul
“He went to college and finally landed an okay job
No not teaching, not in humanities at all.
He had a living wage, then slowly managed to move out.
Then he tried dating and getting a better job for the rest of his days.”
“Amen.
Thanks for not making any waves, babe.”
Chomp!

I’d rather feel the raptor claw clutch now,
and, whenever I go,
I’d be a coveted delicacy
They’ll spend all day cooking me,
simmering low in a some big ***
They’d wear shiny ornaments
and put out fine ivory plates and utensils
Then, right before it’s time to dine,
these birds of prey will pray
in simple thanks I kept my flesh strong