Tyler Bigney

Five Islands

Tyler Bigney

I was on the infamous trail

in Five Islands

where the coyotes ate the boy

and all anyone could find

was his white T-shirt, underwear,

and one blue sock

from a pair

he got for Christmas

from his grandmother.

I had my hunting knife,

the one my mother

gave me for Christmas,

engraved with the words:
Do not be afraid to use it.

I was not afraid,
but the coyotes never came,

which is a sin,

because when I held that knife

in my hands,
and closed my eyes,
I could see myself
flying through the air

like Clark Gable

and tearing that coyote

to pieces
and finding the other

blue sock sitting like a stone

in his bloated belly,

while the newspapers

took pictures of me standing

next to him,

holding that lone blue sock

high above my head,

like some sort of hero.

The day the crows left

Tyler Bigney

I heard

in the room above mine,

a little cough

that turned into

a big cough

that turned into

a bigger cough.

It was my grandfather

who was doing

all the coughing.
Alone up there

with the crickets

and the bats

and whatever else

was hiding with him

in the dark.

It wasn’t saliva,

but blood

that he was coughing.
And I knew

from the sound

of him spitting

that irony blood

onto the floor,

that he was dying.

But who was I

to tell a dying man

that he was dying?

Instead, I watched TV:
an episode of Seinfeld
I’d never seen before. Something

about marine biology.

I waited till late morning

to wake him, telling him

to come downstairs

for bacon and eggs,

orange juice and green tea.

He sat, smiling,
pointing out the window

at a murder of crows

taking flight

from the telephone wire,

as the warm yolk

slipped down his chin.

I listened as a cough

worked its way

up through his lungs,

to the back of his throat.

I heard his lips

press open,

and at the last second

I closed my eyes

and covered my ears.

Tyler Bigney was born in 1984. He lives, works, and writes in Nova Scotia, Canada. His travelogues, short stories, and poetry have appeared in Nerve Cowboy, Iodine, Underground Voices, The Legendary, and Poetry New Zealand, among others.