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George Lewis Avery

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the strange old lady
with thinning hair
decaying teeth
leathern face
and throat that cackles
with grating laughter
calls to her boney nag
who halts in stumbling stride
while she leaps down
off the wagon
with an ease
akin to youth

beside herself
at finding another artifact
disowned
she wrings her fingers
and stomps her heels
then spins
and kisses her poor nag
square on its nose

she has loaded me onto her cart
atop a heap of weathered bones
and the wagons wheels resume
their circular motion
pressing parallel ruts
into the parched earth
of a dried out waterhole
while the horizon draws near
ever nearer
a lone carrion beetle
scampers across the cracked and curling peat
doomed to die
the same death as i
the cargo jostles
and i rattle gainst the bones
as loudly as they gainst i
while the old lady hums
a tune i do not know
and i only care
that i am leaving this plain
and am mighty grateful for the ride

.oeg ©