mercifulserpent | (no subject)

Joy Harjo -- Legacy

In Wheeling, West Virginia, inmates riot.
Two cut out the heart of a child rapist
and hold it steaming in a guard's face
because he will live

to tell the story.

They know they have already died
of unrequited love
and in another version

won't recognize the murdered

as he walks toward them

disguised as the betrayed lover.

I don't know the ending,
or how this will make the bruised and broken
child live easier into the night

of a split world,

where in one camp the destroyers

have cooked up

a stench of past and maggots.

And in the other

love begins a dance, a giveaway to honor
the destroyed with new names.
I don't know the ending.
But I know the legacy of maggots is wings.
And I understand how lovers can destroy everything

together.