Beasts of the Night

tick-tock clocking of heels
calculated to lure lust from
the darkfall of night.

pagan self-sacrifice, patient
prey to all who scent her spoor.

all life tends to the state of food.
the true gourmands of the fog
know this intimately, in bone and blood.

still the tick-tock of the life clock.
soon the feared, hoped for tryst.
Red Jack's love cuts like a knife.

and the willing offering instinctively knows
that the first cut is the deepest,
the first draught is the strongest,
and little the diff'rence 'tween hunter
and prey.