Of Vampires and Zombies

Forty seven days had dragged their feet through the frost And the girl lingered just to seem familiar to the scene; A huddling of gypsies stacked against the creeping ochre tide That spread across the sky and settled down atop the roofs. The assorted Babylonians coalescing out of jetsam Sending lonely little clouds to struggle briefly then to fade All maintained conceited vigils under stale moon’s borrowed light As it hovered still uncertain there with bloody burned out welcome. So after peeling back it swollen curtains this grey morning Saw there nothing worth its ire or love and simply never stirred But the girl whispered ‘no ships wait here’ and so she set her face Towards the sun, dragging her bloated shadow down along the street. And a tiny body stretched. The sun strutted its way across the plush blue sky with brash and brassy Trumpet sending notes cascading down upon the grass, Where glowing they clung snugly to its cramped and frozen limbs. Her shadow thickened sweetly, fattening in the warmth. One by one the raucous echoes tumbling round and round her head All stole away to blackened crannies of the slow retreating town Until the last found naught before him but a lone cow, brown and solemn; Who watched with faint reproach his awkward lurch across the field. They formed a mocking retinue of laughing hooded reprobates; Gleeful demons flitted through the crowd of hulking foes Amongst the furry shadow boulders at the corners of her gaze; Their shifting liquid faces leered at chambers now abandoned. Distances exhaled and all the dormant little wonders That lay listless in a thick decrepit stupor slowly woke now As they felt the starving wind rash past all rabidly intent upon Those grottos of her soul so fresh and hollow. A downy head raised itself as giant clumsy paws attacked An itch that danced incessantly behind a soft warm ear. Thus pursued, she hurried on along the worn and tended road And the firmament, it grew restless and broiled a crackling soup. Fed by Heaven’s tension now a giant anvil bloomed And spread its minatory bulk across the agitated scene. Thunder’s broad grey face was lightly fringed with sultry gold And the static sky was buzzing with a truly manic tune. The sweaty air collapsed and wept For Holy promise so barely kept Until a filthy deluge swept Its bile upon the buds The waters lapped the caverns’ steps A thousand thirsty critters crept And while the nest of vipers slept They feasted on the flood The news of soil and sweat and hunger clamoured like a bell Born on a breeze hanging heavy with the clotted memories. A sick warm rain now pissed on down in heavy sheets upon an earth That groaned and sighed and whimpered and still sucked its thirsty fill. The girl stuttered to a halt beneath the pressing stream. Its fiery patron swallowed whole, her shadow sunk its fingers In the gritty mud and clawed the sodden dirt. The pup cocked its head to gaze upon a wilting figure That seemed fixed on some mirage off in the hazy middle distance And he padded very softly through the verdant little ditch Toward the ripened morsel sliding down the road behind her heels. Looking back the girl could see the town still squatting with its Heavy haunches spread across a vista washed and rinsed of colour. The drumming slowly thinned to some few straggling pits and patters On the thickly furrowed road and all its tiny venous rivers That had sluiced on down to damn against the matted hind now seated In the muck and soak the tail that writhed and squirmed with pure delight. Distances all held their breath and silence grew outrageous While the sun; her guide, her prize, still sulked and hid amongst the haze. She turned and tried to rouse her limbs to forge ahead all rudderless, But her shadow hunkered down and hung on oh so grimly And she squinted at the sky for any tardy rhythmic ripple But not a single bird now stirred in that becalming misted sea. The girl reached out a hand toward the warmly beating echo Of a cheap communion breathing in those weary wilting moments. The pup craned his neck and closed his eyes in ecstasy To feel her touch that melted in his coat all damp but still so soft. Her fingers curled within his fur and entertained twin thrills That rippled all across their skin and out into the mist To shake the shroud til a little breeze crept in underneath And the fog was slowly lifted and the air began to breathe. She stepped off once again, now in a pleasant company That followed close behind her sniffing, licking at her shadow And she did not begrudge the pup a nibble as the sun got brighter, For its gnawing at the edges seemed to make her burden lighter. The sun, it seemed, was beckoning from in between the hazy peaks That rolled their lazy shoulders as they sprawled on the horizon. The buoyant pair raced up the slope toward the distant pass With her shadow rippling as it flew atop uneven ground. Bathing in the glow that dripped across the grassy foothills, They traipsed amongst the hidden mine shafts sunk into the turf; Brushing up against their leaking paunches of stale air That hung below the lips and mounds, defying all the breezes. In and out about her feet the pup was bounding; ears A-flapping, tongue a-lolling, people-hungry spirits soaring high. Swallows sped across the rise and looped in teasing tandem Whirs of movement, full to bursting with the promise of a chase; But he had eyes for naught but her and all she cast across the ground And so he snaffled what he could while ever-watchful of the sky That bled the many morning shadows of their weighty thoughts and cares To feed the sun that climbed upon its face, reflected in his eye. Seven leagues beyond the hills the tussocks start to thin And a dusty sand drifts out from where the rivers all run dry. Stony faces scarred by stinging winds rise up from out the earth In tiny pockets dotted roughly all across the plain, Whose weathered grins and eyes and chins still hold a wry amusement At the spectacle of all their dewy Edens turned to fossils. Into all this heady heat the girl and pup meandered With a steady breeze that blew so dry and warm upon their faces. They trod the path that trickles down from out the wooded bluffs Til it dispersed in sparser lands among the crumbs of solid dirt, Which lie strewn about like tailings of some wondrous ancient work But crumble mutely into dust beneath an infant’s curious touch. In the rising warmth their steps took on a soothing rhythm That was lost to all but silent bodies ‘neath the crusted earth Shrivelled in their hollow casts; traps of desiccated sorrow Who had waited for the blessed flood that simply never came. A tree rose up upon the right, obscenely tall and thin; It’s meagre foliage dappled barren limbs and rasped against the sky As it turned its back to echoes of some old forgotten wind. The sun kept climbing up and up and found a little sting. Her harried shadow crept toward her heels, inch by sandy inch, Saving what it could from scything teeth all peeling strips To numb the hunger pains that grew along the pup’s fledging bones. They passed by the tree on quiet feet and did not see another. She scratched his ears and he mouthed her hand And they moved into a quiet land Beneath a bitter sun. Shrubs naked in the orange light sat brittle, thin and bare Until their withered roots could find no more to barter with the sands That were reflected in the stormless sky, two pale and burning seas, And that swallowed stones and ridges, paths and footprints, and horizons. The pair rolled on until the sun struck a silent noon In air so still and warm her sweat turned lye against her skin And the pup who had now well and truly grown into his paws Licked up the last skerrick of shadow, sat and watched with a vapid grin. Upon a skyline so severe Balanced the glowing hemisphere As distance seemed to disappear Poised and trembling in the air The endless sands and opaque sky Burned themselves into her eye Until the world grew all awry And mirrors danced within the glare Wound about a brittle spindle The moment stretched so taut and fine As harvests all began to dwindle A sudden crack burst through the tine The sun fell back, reversed its tack Burning where it once did shine The girl looked down the trodden track Expecting shadows at her back But the sand was gold and the dog was black And now his hunger chilled her spine She turned away from homeward paths all choked by fur and teeth And on shaking legs began to race the sun to the west horizon. The sand slid from beneath her feet and cheated her of time As she floundered all adrift on seas of silence, space and distance. Before they could reach her burning cheeks and deliver up their balm, Heat crept up from the roasted sands and slyly stole her tears. With a cool and easy patience now the dog trotted behind her; She could hear his steady, even breaths and feel his heavy, rhythmic steps And fear leaked from her treacherous skin to sweeten the desert air. In time the plain began to heave and roll til dunes swelled up about her, Growing large against the sky with smug, inflated majesty. She climbed and slid and slid and climbed up and down the slopes And the dog quickened his steps until he sat just like a shadow. As the light began to bore her eyes and drill her very thoughts Each arid breath drew life from out her cracked and swollen lips. The sun slid down the sky like a drop of searing nectar Steady beating out a crazy rhythm on her crimson features And she fancied for a moment that it fell towards a kingdom Floating fey atop a dreamy haze all drenched and sparkling bright. But the towers guttered gently and the streets were shining rivers And no brick or brook could hope to stand on such elusive sands. The beautiful delusion leeched upon her open mouth and eyes Until its sinking mother cracked upon the edge and shattered And a thousand shards were scattered in amongst the trembling mist Where they swam, as all her wonders flickered dimly in her sighs. With her black companion at her heels and empty sea before her Inertia sprouted ugly from the sand and seeped up to her heart. She lay her head down in a mangy field of golden strawberries As the red heat baked into her skin pounded at the cooling air And as it flooded the fading sky, it carried all it could And all the quivers lingered long after her flesh had shed its fire. Prying through a blanket of stars The memory of so many moons Glittered on the inky sea And froze to snow the powdered dunes. Teeth of finest porcelain Dug through the bleeding pile of steam Til shining bones observed his face And every single gloating beam. Successive waves broke in the distance, Her blood caked in the sand, The dog, it ate up all its fill Then trotted off to prowl the land.