Mackenzie Hyatt

Easier Than Teaching

Mackenzie Hyatt

CW: references to sexual assault

Whistle, wolf, and starve, because a step-crushing snow may interrupt the response you’re hungry for, strain your ears for a scream in response.

Bugle, elk, still in velvet, let steam spill from your mouth in the cold, swear that you don’t feel a thing and pick fights with all the wrong monsters, swear that you will never be a trophy.

Cry, killdeer, wing askew, limp and lure lovely coyote, make her pity you until the others are out of sight. Say she saw a meal in you.

I am sorry, deer, I am sorry that I cannot tell you why they scar you, why they scar each other. They say it is in their nature, but﹘ here, take your knife and your pepper spray﹘ this is easier than teaching killdeer not to lie.