A Prisoner in a Cage Somewhere

They locked me naked
In an empty room

But I felt untamed
And, more importantly, deadly armed

I first sheared every hair on my body one
By one, braided them together
for gauze, rope, and netting

Then the nails, easily to file
Into claws, easy to fork the tongue,
To ignore the eventual consequences of pain

I dug my ribs out, six, and sharpened them,
Wore them on my fingers like claws. I bled and
Fed the feral Earth in a demonic ritual

Applied pressure to the wound using black gauze
Far away something dark awoke under the quarter moon
A cricket stopped singing, and then another

Carved divots into my ribs using sharpened teeth
Pounded them into the stone wall both fists forward
Set before the door a concealed woven net

And strung it like a vengeful ivy
I waited for a night, a week
Ate bits of myself I knew would forgive me

They, eventually, walked in
And I sprung my trap

Used my claw of ribs to slit their throat
And then my nails to skin them alive

I stripped their fat and wrung it for oil
Started a fire, ate medium rare tongue that night
Saved the veins for desert

I devoured them entirely and, upon finishing, looked to the open door
I was ready, my body now twice as deadly
Filled with a desire twice as horrible as before

Dante Novario currently lives in Louisville, KY where he studied writing at Bellarmine University and works as a behavior technician. At times, he can be found selling odd little scrolls of poetry throughout the city. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Firewords Quarterly, Rogue Agent Journal, Dream Pop Press, and The Ariel Magazine.