Death of the Wild

[Kikuyu_Black_Paws]

I feel the pain deep in my chest,

Filling my lungs with blood,

I lie on the ground and stare at the stars,

My life fluid pounds like a flood.

 

They've never looked so bright before,

The stars in the sky, I mean,

This is the last time I'll see them,

Or admire their blue-ish gleam.

 

A tear trickles down my face,

And pools into my ear,

It makes a roaring, scratchy noise,

Such a tiny little tear.

 

The wound is fire that blossoms,

There, right over my heart,

And I wonder if it will bloom tonight,

Before my life departs.

 

I see it grow and twist and twine,

It glows with embers and flames,

And the rose unfolds its petals,

And weeps tears of blood and blame.

 

A cringing tendril reaches out,

To touch the stars above,

And one by one the petals fall,

Scorned by the harshest love.

 

The breathing in the forest slows,

My enemy is near,

But in my direst hour now,

I can feel no fear.

 

He looms over me with a grinning mouth,

And blazing eyes of light,

With a silent promise that he will take me,

Once I've departed the night.

 

With my final breath I blow a kiss,

To the trees that were my home,

To the children left around the hearth,

To my husband now all alone.

 

And the claws of my enemy close around,

And bear me into the wild,

Tonight my death will become the life,

Of another hungering child.

 

...The man watched sadly as the hawk flew off,

A dead, bedraggled fox in tow,

And he watched and waited through the night,

Till the sparkling moon sank low.

[lessthaninnocent]

I really like that. It seems so obvious what you are writing about until the end when it changes. Very atmospheric too. I'm a big fan of constraining poetry into rythms. I think it seems better thought out that way.