Necrofauna/The Garden of Eden

I wake up in the dark.

The sound of foxes mating reverberates around the inside of the quad of the complex of flats

in which we reside,

Like shrieking demonic children

I can’t take it anymore,

So I rise,

Out of my body, up off the bed and into the shadowed hallway.

I shiver, but I am not cold.

Not dramatic, not raining.

I’m a spirit, come to haunt the dead.

I leave my sleeping self back in there and step through the closed front door onto the street.

The orange glow makes monochrome of the cars,

Hunched over on either side as if

ashamed to wait for their owners to return and slide a key into their ignitions.

It’s a nasty, wind blown night, but I throw back my head and smile.

Nothing says I love you like this thing,

A carrot on a string (who d’you love),

I’ve had waking sweats from fever dreams,

Guess I’m feeling the sting (who d’you love)

My gaze returns to earth and alights before me on a pulsing hole that has split the air open,

Like a portal to another dimension.

I approach it and climb in.

Despite its colour and appearance,

it’s filthy.

It leaves stains of mud and grass on my naked torso as I clamber through,

It’s like I’m returning to the womb.

I emerge

and I am in the garden.

(Don’t let me interrupt, as long as they stop bothering us)

I can see the awesome minds of Bosch, Milton, Hollis, Coleridge

I see a deer pass me by, and I break its neck, rip off its hind leg and take a bite

through fur, sinew and bone.

Nothing says I love you like this thing,

A carrot on a string (who d’you love),

I’ve had waking sweats from fever dreams,

Guess I’m feeling the sting (who d’you love),

I lift the veil from the horizon

and see a future for us there.

I believe you will be ok,

I believe

It will all, everything

Soaring, soaring,

Breaking through clouds,

riding vapour trails

all across the sky

I believe

you will be ok,

you don’t have to try,

we will be ok,

everything.