Work Text:
I am a daughter of man, but I am not
what they wanted.
I am unlike them: they have guns and
they hunt and they kill.
Kindred to the Dog Star, I am the
color of autumn splendor.
Proclaimed verminous, a deviant, a danger.
There is a howling echoing behind
and the future is fading ahead.
In blue twilight with a fool’s gold moon,
I run for my life.
Sister Artemis, won’t you help me?
My cunning will only get me so far and the
hounds are so close.
Their teeth and their fire are searing at my back.
Must I justify my existence to a world that
seeks to end me?
Does your favor rest only on the hunter
and not the hunted?
Eyes fixed on the stars above and feet
troubling the dust below.
Dreaming of orbit, but fated to fall from
the firmament.
I am too dumb to leave the Earth, too smart
to want to stay.
Too scared to keep on living,
too chickenshit to die.
Unworthy of a constellation, was I ever
meant for more than this?
Like a little fox, bleeding and desperate,
I will lose either way.