The carcass is now five days old
on the first day it lay in the verge
prefixed by a screaming skid mark
decorated with red and orange splinters

To and from wherever they go
a city of people hurry by
the planet reclaims all that’s hers
dietary requirements no obligation

Down the steep bank and in the wood
life has already moved on
absence is not feared in nature
fear is the presence of something unknown