gone gone
the gangrenous
garrison of hope
corpse plucked clean
by gregarious figures
wrapped in ephemeral
cloaks of ego
twitching in time
to the rigors
as mortis settles

legions of snarling
dogs snapping at
bloody scraps
slowly starving
while the fruits
of their labor
remain reserved

a skinless hoarde
seduced by salinity
in an unseemly silence
suffocating the stars
bringing a bastion
of bitter betrayals
to satiate the savagery
in supple sacrilege