Gone West

Simon MacCulloch

“It was something like a man and something like a lizard, and something like the things that flit across the corner of the eye.” - Anthony Boucher, “They Bite”

Vision tricks

An idol made of sticks

The savage legends, crumbled stones

In sage and greasewood, butchered bones

Incisor nicks.

God as beast

The sacrificial feast

Or just a larder kept in stock

The drab brown stains on drab brown rock

Old skills increased.

Adobe shack

A crime not half as black

And thus the ritual starts again

Makes gods of devils, beasts of men

As teeth attack.