In the bamboo forest,

Shades of green

Fell on your skin,

Tainted your breath

.

Your feet slid across loose soot

Like snakes making their way through

Burning sands. You cursed the heat

The obnoxious tickling in-between your toes

.

You didn’t bother to blend in, because

Why should you have to?

.

Each mockery

Rooted in the corners of your mouth

Drawing out disdain, poison

Distilled out of your heart

.

The trees stared with terrified glares

Nightmares drifting across

The world they knew

Now, in shadows

.

They spoke none of your words

Nor did they understand, nor would they ever

Understand. The best intentions of your people

Nothing

But a devil’s utterings

Bloodsheds and broken bones

That rewrote their lives

.

When you laughed

The scythe in your hand danced

With the rhythm of your insane contempt

The bamboo trees withered and

Torn to shreds, their wailings

suppressed into tiny chokes,

grasping for air

.

You sat back and watched

.

As the curves of your face

And the echoes

Of your voice became the wrath

Of their gods.

.

BY K.T.