When We Were Leopards

For J.D. Harms’ Saturday Poetry Prompt: the wild natural. True story.

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

when you and i were leopards
we crawled on hands and knees
through thickets living out their name
our reward a scarlet mist
of chiggers, there was biting,
and ticks, there was ticking,
and sharp hot grasses shot
burrs and thistles
up our thighs like lusty
tongues licking
playing with barbed wire.
and the sounds…