valentine

What a wretched house in a wretched place

With wretched wood,

Wretched walls,

Wretched water

 

What a wretched house in a wretched place

Sitting in the dark woods,

Water cold as winter,

so cold it stings

Old table, old chairs,

Broken wood

Wood not meant for kindling,

but meant to be consumed all the same

 

there is a creature who lives in this wretched house

it has a wretched body

and gnarled hands

the color of a bruise

the smell of dried blood

and paper towel dampened with spit

it sits in the dark

eyes wide and face prickly with splinters

performing some type of ritual

 

it gnaws on a piece of jagged wood with teeth like a beast’s, 

crunching the sides and inhaling the sawdust like a vacuum

stopping occasionally to dunk its head under freezing cold water

and then barely gasping for breath before it begins again

 

it’s kind of like drowning

filling the lungs with everything but air

letting the water leak in more and more with each dunk

 

it’s hungry

it’s hungry for the pain

hungry for the torture

unearthly sounds escape its mouth

crying in deep ecstasy

 

I hunger

it says

I need to live

I need to drown

I need to scream

it says through full mouth

pieces of wood clattering

sawdust spraying

water flying

I need to EAT

it hyperventilates on the sawdust and water and pushes through and pushes through

and eats and drinks and chokes

and eats and drinks and chokes

and eats and drinks and chokes

AND EATS AND DRINKS AND CHOKES

and the beast stays wretched

baptizing itself in the wretched house

not for god, not for the devil

but for the ether,

for the dark

for the wretchedness