If alive, then all alone and bleeding. If dead, then freshly dead. If not alone, then swarmed
with ants and flies, thick flies like biting July berries. If swarmed with maggots, biblical. If cleaned
to bone then swerving toward some other ancient myth. If myth then not
another word for lie. If story. Moose calf without moon or mother. If not mother
then sunburn. If not moon, then coral bleached as flour milled by stone. If not death
then some other small and breathy word for home.
Zeke Shomler is an MA/MFA candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His work has appeared in Folio, Cordite, Sierra Nevada Review, and elsewhere.
