Bestial Burden - Morty Foster

Heavy crates and parcels wrapped in burlap, set upon

backs of beasts of burden, trudging with legs thick and

frigid in bouts of ice and snow. Their blood runs slow. Thin.

Flurries float across their softly lidded eyes, some

dancing gently onto dry noses and matted fur.

Thin blooded creatures trek deftly between firs and pines,

across frozen rivers and cliffs of chalcedony,

from Dawn until Dusk, again and again,

And again

And again.

Weary bodies with beastial burdens and weakened blood

Rise for one last dawn. Unaware are they, that today, the

Ice will crack under their heavy laden hooves. Today their thin blood

will cause their knees to buckle, sending heavy

crates

and

parcels

tumbling

into

the

snow

beneath chalcedony peaks far from home.