Cryptid by Robert Campbell


 
 

You. Burden. You. Un-favorite
child, ruin of your father’s

pride. Labyrinth-dweller,
hide from the hero. Disappear

into rubble. He comes for you
with his hockey stick, his

bottle rockets, his sock full
of pennies. Even now, he is

counting out the bullets. You
poor bastard. Why do you surround

yourself with walls, waiting for
the hero to hurry towards you

with his shotgun, his daggers
sharper than your bull-horns,

sharper even than the broken
rocks you hurl at human shapes

you cannot stomach, you half-
animal, you mama’s boy, you joke.

 
 
 

Robert Campbell’s poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, River Styx, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Murray State University and serves as Reviews Editor at DIALOGIST, an online journal of poetry and art.