Legend of an African Fiend

Behind their silent faces
Flashes of memory
Drain their innocence

Arising corruption
Etch layers of horror
In their mind

Through a dusty haze
A woman sits
A thin rug hanging from her bony shoulders

A shriveled child
Long past dead,
In the woman’s tight arms

Dark fly-infested skin
Hollowed cheeked
Stiff as a shield

The woman, catatonic
Her milky glazed eyes
Faded, drained of everything

The wind slowly cradling them both