Inspired by Jeremy Seth Taylor’s “Kids of the Black Hole”

i call out of my throat
into the woods
of merciful satan,
for hell is in the animals
who drink my blood

who shiver their spasming muscles
and drink the oil
we have left for them
who swim through their inheritance
water bottles and condoms in the stream

i drink into my throat the smoke
and the sprite
the sugar oil;
i step through the shit in
satan’s polluted, thick woods

the toys are put away in the bushes
and the soapy rainbow
oil bubbles blink as they pop
and puddle in the creek
they (the animals) swim through

i am the satan
who spits in the grass
and picks the droppings
out of his shoes and toes
i drink, too, the oil.