Dog With All The Bones
I am a dog with all the bones
snarling over shit
I cannot even chew
You beg at the gate
with hollow eyes
thinking I will find a heart
under all this rust
Greed welded my jaw shut long ago
every kindness rotted out of my throat
I would rather choke on this hoard
than throw you one spare note
I sit in a yard
full of shit I do not need
while you stand at the fence
with empty hands
and a tired stare
I dug up the whole neighborhood
for anything that looked like value
even if I had to rip it
out of your share
Now I have bones stacked in piles
so high I cannot even walk
without tripping on my own stash
You have a stomach
gnawing on itself
and a spine that feels ready
to crack in half
You ask for one
just one
something I will not miss
some small thing
to get you through the night
I bare my teeth
growl “mine”
like you dared to step
into my god-given right
I do not even remember
where half these bones came from
or why I wanted them so bad
Only remember the rush of taking
not the people
I made go mad
I would rather sleep
on a pile of loot
that breaks my back
and crushes my chest
than share a single scrap
and fail this test
You finally turn away
mutter my name like a curse
shoulders slumped
walking toward a darker street
I watch you go
with a flicker of something
almost like regret
then bury it
in another heap at my feet
Tell myself
you will bounce back somewhere
that I owe you nothing
but the memory of when we ran side by side
Forget that I once vowed
I’d never leave you
on the wrong side of the divide
Nights get colder
bones get heavier
yard feels smaller
with each breath I steal
No laughter
no footsteps
no one left to impress with my haul
no one left to kneel
I stand in the middle
of everything I ever took
and hear my own chest beg
for some kind of trade
But there is nothing left to barter with
just this heap I made
When the yard floods
and the bones float off
into gutters and drains
washed clean of my claw marks and stains
I will die in the mud I guarded
begging the rain
for chains