Zach Sklar's Dream

A man and a woman are living

in a jungle. The man has lived there

all his life but the woman is new

so she's scared. The jungle is full

of snapping turtles and they are hunting some.

The man knows how to hunt them

and he kills a huge one. They drag it home

and leave it on a wooden table

in a clearing overnight. He says to the woman

Tomorrow you will clean it and cook it

in a soup. This

will accustom her to turtles

and make her less afraid.

The next morning they wake up.

But when they go into the clearing

the turtle is gone

and there's a trail of blood

leading into the jungle.

The woman panics with terror

but the man is no longer

concerned with that: he grabs

his weapons and follows

the blood into the forest.