08.02.20 put down the stick

what to do with a dead horse
in the middle of a desert?
Slice open its gut and climb inside
to ward off the chill
of oncoming night
and hope the coyotes don’t get me?

(“see Mr. Sertic,” say I to his ghost,
“Star Wars is educational.”)

No, that won’t do. Guts are for snow.
Maybe I should start a fire,
slice it up, grab the stick
roast the thing,
eat it piece by piece.

I go back and fetch the stick,
and return to discover
nothing.
oh yes, this horse had
run free of its flesh
nearly two years ago.

Onward by foot, then.
Plenty to see and to smell in the desert at night
in the rain of my own creation.