Southward, Your Grandmother Cries

Westward,

and I left your body

but harbored

your still-beating heart ...

This poem is a direct sequel of the poem, Westward. For a deeper experience, read Westward first. Links to others in the collection are at the end.

Southward, Your Grandmother Cries

Westward,

and I left your body

but harbored

your still-beating heart

in my rib cage — the safekeeping

I always dreamt of

for our love,

but you could only dream

in the spring.

“He is not gone,

watch him, please.”

I beseech the vultures,

who are satisfied enough

by your trail of

bloodshed

that they will not feast … yet.

Blade sharp and ravenous,

I evade your revenant

enemies

for three restless nights

and days.

Then, the ravens find me

and make promises

of our salvation.

“Are you loyal to him?”

one asks.

I stow my inherited carver

and show him the bullets

with your name burned

on each,

once brandished

by souls bound to shared creed.

The three-eyed Priestess

meets us

across the hungry valley,

and she lies.

Southward

echoes the waning cries

of a longing

coyote, too far from home.

It stains the night air,

has for twenty years.

Priestess swears

the only way to revive

the cowboy, gunslinger,

my fatherly, Dare,

whose heart has been

so long departed

from his chest,

is to let rest

this lonely creature

and recover her

silver tooth.

Suddenly, the daughterly

becomes more than a gardener,

knife wielder,

girl who has lost hope for belonging —

It has always been with you.

And for us,

I have become

the fool with a death wish.

I promise

I thought this

was the only cure —

Southward, I harbored

the serpent’s myth, unaware

of her debt

to the Leopard and Boar.

Would that I had foreseen

the forlorn beast

stalking the arid hills,

feared by watchful

wanderers,

was your own grandmother,

the legend who gifted

your first piece.

I once called your creed

careless.

Yet, when I pried

the canine

from the creaky jaw

of the nightmarish creature,

she turned into a woman,

weary from heartache,

and I realized that

somewhere,

someone

would be burning

my own name

into a bullet.

***

This poem is a part of an ongoing collection. Below are links to the others in chronological order.

The Leopard, Boar, and Their Unkindness

This poem is a short and beastly introduction into the world of anthromorphic characters. It serves as an origin story to the Unkindness, which remains an eerie, looming presence throughout the collection.

Loyal

Loyal tells how the shapeshifting character, Priestess, creates a close bond with a member of the Unkindness. This foreshadows her subsequent partnership with the entire flock. There are still many parts of this connection left to be explored!

Roaches

A long-form poem, Roaches throws you right into the action. It captures the terrifying battle between human and shapeshifting entities, bound to the same creed, trapped together in an infinite cycle of conflict. This poem also gives some helpful insight into Dare's relationship with his "daughterly" Trace, who carries part of the collection herself.

Westward

The poem that made Top Story! Westward is unique in that is spells out the aftermath of a lost battle. In this tragedy, Trace is reminiscing about her life with Dare. In this gentle, loving vigil, she lets him go. But ... it is not the end of their story.

Southward, Your Grandmother Cries

In this poem, Southward Your Grandmother Cries, Trace has transformed from a grieving daughter to a hunter, balancing on the precipice of being trapped by Dare's creed. Here, we can see how the metamorphosis from human to the shapeshifting creature begins and ends. (Hint, it is a cycle, not a divide.)

Where the Agave Blooms

Where the Agave Blooms explores the revenant nature of characters trapped within the creed. Revived, Dare has one goal: find Trace.

If you made it this far, you may have noticed that this collection is exploring a wild west kind of world with a web of interconnected characters. Let me know if you are interested in reading more. The next releases will continue to fill in the gaps of the storyline.

If you particularly enjoyed the long-from poem, Roaches, you may also be interested to know that this collection is a pre-cursor into a fiction novel about the adventures of Trace and Dare. If you are looking forward to a more straightforward exploration of "the creed" and the role it plays in their world, let me know in the comments. I'd love to release a few chapter of Trace and Dare.

***

Hello, wanderer,

Thank you for your patience. These fantastical poems are often some of my favorite to write. I hope you enjoy them as well!

xoxo, for now

-your friend, lost southward