Eating the Eaters

From the great ships they brought vermin and disease defiled the freshwater pools and palm tree nests devoured forest songs -clipped the color from trees lay shadows beneath the sun children of the reef. Just before the chain of rapes, she fled with a flower that her mother frantically placed in her hair she hid in caves with the graves of ancestors prayed to the starry gods of the night sky ate the eaters from the tide pools of despair tried to grasp the miracles flashing by. Re-emerging into the light her skin turning white like the death ship spires she watched as they finally lifted anchor then dropped them, heavy in her heart... She searched under every shell and cloud, everything she loved was swept beneath the sandy hell... She rubbed the faded petals into her sunken cheeks to protect her from the biters lying just beneath but the lavender magic had faded long ago. She smashed into the surf on a raft made of claro and bones drifted into the teeth of breakers and found her way back home.