in memorandum

I slipped from the feathers of my bed into a game of nature’s spades.  Wet leaves and tannic blackberry notes swept across the freshly soaked concrete drive.  I inhaled my first cup of coffee as a sailor takes to sweet-spiced rum.

Under a cacophony of electrical rage, my feet quickly escorted me away from the drumming of thunder towards the steep grade out of Point Robinson Park.

I heard the jester, Raven, call out to me from the west.  I positioned his cackle above a young buck car-struck near mid-rise of the slope.  Celebrating in the fragrance of decomposition, he beckoned me to join him in a hearty memorandum.

For three days the foul scent of the stiffened beast caused me raw discomfort every time I passed by. I fought a strong repulsion and trudged on to meet the spot of slaughter.  Raven perched alone in the bow of a bent alder. Below, lay blood stained hair and grass interwoven but the lifeless deer was gone. Death incarnate had disappeared and I was left staring at the empty space demarcated.  Like a crime scene freshly cleared, I bowed in reverence for all mortal beings brought in and out of body.

Raven was quiet.  As was I.  Thunder ceased and I returned home with wet feet and a steady beat in my chest.