The Corandury

Upon my bedroom's bottom stair

With broken button eyes

In neither passion nor despair

The Corandury lies.

The thing seems naught but sweet, benign

And knows not of dispute

But 'tis the scourge of all divine

That much is absolute.

Last night I saw it eat my friends

It mauled them one-by-one

It plucked their fingers from the ends

And danced in blood 'til sun.

I shrieked and yelled to see them dead

Told Mother of the feast

She groaned and said, "Dear, go to bed"

And left me with the beast.

Disordered limbs and open chests

Marked funerals of five

Upon their grave I sought to rest

Just me, just me alive.

I cried asleep and dreamed of death

And how I'd meet its teeth

And how, come morning, Mother's breath

Would lament disbelief.

Soon, peace of terror was no more

For, come impending day

I saw my friends walk out the door

Just fine in every way.

My mother scowled with eyebrows stern

And pointed at my nose

I could not live; I could not learn

So up the stairs I rose.

I yanked the doll from where it sat

Manipulating cares

I saw a sneaking, lying rat

And hurled it down the stairs.

Between the beatings and the screams

And heels against its chin

And cotton stray, and broken seams

I thought I saw it grin.