On walks, my dog loves to sniff death and decay,
and never seems to ponder ~
how things got to be this way.
Categories:
roadkill, 12th grade, dark, dog,
Form: Tercet
No one knows the coyote that bleeds in me.
No one knows my heart is an open road
No one knows the sound I softly whine
But I do. I do.
I will wake today and carry my body
I will wake today and carry my bones
I will tread until I reach the highway
Coyote,
Bleed
Bleed
Bleed.
Categories:
roadkill, animal, fate, growing up,
Form: Free verse
Splattered scattered parts
unidentified bodies
dog rabbit or deer
Categories:
roadkill, animal, death,
Form: Haiku
Watch your eyes to the road and the view
but hold your nose over the next hill.
A skunk is dead on the side of the road
the kill is not fresh, but three days old.
The stink of the kill lingers on and on
a smell so bad that needs to be gone.
Then seven more miles down the same road
is another skunk whose death is days old.
Categories:
roadkill, animal,
Form: Rhyme
He hears again
the far-off jiggling of keys,
the throaty cough of ignition,
recalls strafing lights
on a night-blurred road.
Moths, like pale flowers,
crash against the windscreen.
Over-reaching branches
whip back and forth, warping
a transfixed retina.
A gritty sleet, then,
the bloodied head, the matted fur,
the flaying shanks;
a frozen shock laid bare.
Returning to the garage,
warm metal ticks,
he stares at a dark windscreen,
the dead
spread across his mind
still looking for a way out.
Categories:
roadkill, poetry,
Form: Free verse
At a checkpoint sits a four-door sedan, brown paint faded by years of unremitting sun, pitted by hundreds of sandstorms. Only bullet holes exposing fresh metal and the still-inflated tires are new.
Inside, four crimson-splattered corpses: father at the wheel, forced against the seatback by the impact of tens of bullets, his eyes still fixed on the road ahead; mother's head smashed against the caved-out passenger-side window; two children riveted to the backs of the rear seats, a limp rag doll in one lap.
Outside, death lives in the instant silence; hearts slowly descend from throats to resume their monotony; lungs exhale and fear-frozen fingers relax, beginning to feel again.
A year and half later, in his parents' backyard on a sunny Sunday afternoon, a 23-year-old US soldier kills himself with a single bullet to the head.
Categories:
roadkill, death, war,
Form: Free verse
Middle of the road,
or somewhere in between,
Over and beyond,
is where I should’ve been,
Living in the undergrowth
Staying more or less unseen
Now a piece of roadkill,
belly up hasbeen.
As you drive on by,
Spare a thought for me.
Stuck to the highway,
baking in the sun,
Flies all around me,
least they’re having fun,
Getting flatter by the minute,
almost dried out,
A splat of bloodied hair,
unrecognizable beyond doubt,
As you cycle past,
spare a thought for me.
Saw an open space,
with some shiny lights,
Looked quite innocuous,
in dark of the night,
Could hear friendly calls,
from the other side,
Off I went a trotting,
for the last time of my life,
As you see me disintegrate,
Spare a thought for me.
A blinding beam of light,
heading straight my way,
To late I can’t go forward,
or scurry back into the hay,
Absolutely no idea what hit,
Just burst like a bubble,
Ants are everywhere now,
Rejoice! the man with a shovel.
As you see me scraped up,
Spare a thought for me,
By
David Kavanagh
Categories:
roadkill, allegory, animal, car, death,
Form: Rhyme
Used to be king of the hill now on a bunch damn pills
Pills for this, pills for that, pills that give my parts a thrill
Those I overdose on
Feel like an Amazon
Could last for days but then look like roadkill
Categories:
roadkill, depression,
Form: Limerick
Driving along
What's that I smell
The daily delight
Of the latest roadkill
From raccoons to possums
In this flattened cuisine
As vultures take lunches
On this finest of dining
Call us the critter getters
Crossing over our paths
Taking them out
As they scurry this way and that
From Bambi to Thumper
And all their forest friends
It does make you wonder
Who you'll run into next
We'll even take out the curious
Who wander on
To that portion of blacktop
To see what's going on
From teetotaling turtles
To slithering snakes
There's not a creature out there
That we won't pancake
So check out the roadkill
If there's still twitch after the thump
Hurry in back
And toss it into the trunk
Because down in the South
There ain't no one can say
That any of us country folk
Let a thing go to waste
Below the Mason Dixon line
If it's fresh enough
We'll take it home ya'll
And have it for lunch
As long as it's fried
There ain't a thing
With cheese grits on the side
That we won't eat
Categories:
roadkill, animal, funny, humor,
Form: Light Verse
A momentary glimpse
And silent touch of hands
The peace that was wrecked
With the roar of machine
The water that was laid
Upon the heap of sands
For it was the final voyage
Of the love
That had just begun
A melodious music
Silently tearing away the winds
And tearing away the heart
Oh!! The ringing of the bell
Brought away a tides of pain
Its was a journey that saw
The road kill of the last love’s train
Categories:
roadkill, lost love
Form: Free verse