Snake through the sedge with a silver-black bend Wolf at the treeline where the dead roads end Mud on the muzzle, moon in the mire Cold little eyes and a mouth full of wire Slip through the briar, drag through the dust Two kinds of hunger making one kind of trust Tail in the weeds and a paw in the clay Something gets taken before it gets away Low in the hollow where the black water crawls Bone-white branches leaning over it all Fur in the thicket, scales in the rain One leaves a mark, one follows the stain Circle the cedar, circle the stone Circle the place where the buried things groan Nothing gets spoken, nothing gets sworn By the time it gets light, something’s already gone Hiss in the hedge Claw in the loam Blood runs thin Roots run home Two shadows cross One shadow stays Moon goes blind The whole thing sways BITE DOWN BLACK GROUND TEAR THROUGH BREAK TWO LOW CRAWL HIGH HOWL BAD BLOOD BLACK MUD Snake in the grass Wolf in the pines Something went wrong At exactly the right time Scale scrape, claw scrape, dirt kicked loose Cold-blood, old blood, nothing to prove Rib cage rising, tree line bends One bad beginning with two bad ends Night got meaner Moon got thin Wind quit moving Something grinned Ash on the root Mud on the track Half of the bargain Never came back Hiss Rip Howl Run Black Red Gone Done BITE DOWN BLACK GROUND TEAR THROUGH BREAK TWO LOW CRAWL HIGH HOWL BAD BLOOD BLACK MUD Snake in the grass Wolf in the pines Two hungry shadows Pulling the same line BITE DOWN BLACK GROUND TEAR THROUGH BREAK TWO Something got buried Something got fed Something kept moving Something stayed dead
