Bark along your solitary fence.
Scare away the neighbours.
Dig down deeper at the dents
which seem to hold a favourable flavour
of blood and bone that was once alive here.
The garden of life – a life turned into hatred.
Belated by a between a lie and a life story.
Of love and harmony, killed through a distant disarming
of understanding that caressed the enemy in dark times.

‘You silly dog! You don’t understand!
dig for the bone! Don’t bite the hand!’ I shouted.

Twisting, burning, turn the light out with a shout.
Blow through the hollow tube and seal the mist inside the room.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Scarring inside of you burns to break through and eat through this room.
It will fight its way out of you if it must.
Throw it up. Let lust disgust you enough to churn up your guts.
Allow the rot to get out and wet the dust
which strokes your fingers and toes.
Bedridden with woes – your dreams have turned on you.
Turning. Turning. Drink some water.
Gulp it down and turn some more.
The brittle bones rattle in your neck,
flexing to get out of this fleshy chamber.
Empty of health and flailing in desire.

‘You silly dog! You don’t understand,
dig for the bone! Don’t bite the hand,’ I mumbled.

Bulging ligaments groaned like old plumbing
as I craned down to look at my hand.
The bones were poking through the sand-paper skin and the teeth were sinking deeper now.

‘You silly dog! You don’t understand.’
‘I am not your meal!’ I moaned.

‘You silly dog. You don’t understand!’ Said I again, grumbling… my mouth was filled with salty, dirty flesh and blood. The metallic taste corroded my soft palette.

With sickening realisation, twisting my insides up once again, Truth burst inside the darkness, blowing my door to smithereens. Sunlight burnt my eyes, the bird song blistered my ears and the crisp air stripped the lining of my lungs.

‘I was once a man…’ I uttered. Yet there was nobody to hear me this time. Truth had left me with nothing. Not even a barking dog.