Off the beaten path

Where the sweet smell of decay

Wafted up

Towards the slate grey autumn sky

The Traveler kicked the recent living

And newly dead leaves

Across where his sinking footprints had marked

The murky earth below

In a few weeks this evidence would be consumed

And lost forever

As his latest was now

Flaxen hair had gripped the leaves

In moments on the ground

Grasping and clinging long after

The soil settled back over

Where his footprints were erased

There’s a dusty road to nowhere

Between small towns all the same

Where the Traveler goes wandering

In search of his next game

They never see him coming

Seems to blend within the crowd

Hiding in plain site

Beneath his demon shroud

They live within his terror

Til the mystery runs cold

He waits in patience silent

Til he’s just a story told

He still prowls the shadows

Gossip never tells what’s real

Driving down that dusty road

Searching for a soul to steal

Fragrant hill top hide a way

Just a few short miles from town

Filled with cars and lovers

And summer evening sounds

Children play adult games

Locking lips and losing time

Girls seek to find Romeo

While boys just cross the line

Gravel snaps beneath

The Travelers tires on the prowl

Unaware at make-out point

They can’t hear him howl

He’ll choose a spot that’s dark

Where moonbeams cannot see

Then wait for his signal

As to who his prey will be

It may take all night

But time is on his side

They will never see it coming

Where life and death collide

Just a click beyond the dark of midnight
The Traveler emerges in stride
Briskly paced and haunting
Damp streets and fog enrobed autumn eve
Keeping time over flattened dead
Leaves once vibrantly coloured
Now faded brown decaying
Soon to be lost
Down stone gutters through chilled metal grates
Into the bowels below this city of sorrow
His footsteps trample the concrete
Back towards the muddy rivers edge
Through backwoods of secrets untold
Over shallow crypts of forsaken dreamers
Only he has remembrance of
Death comforts him at every turn
Cold like the grave so many now lay within
And deep like the winter snow that threatens to fall

She surprised him with her heaviness
As he dragged her to the garden
Deep in the lush late summer woods
Arms entwined like dancers
He dragged her over log and bump
And laid her by the spot he chose
Her broken skull shifted and caught his gaze
He stroked her blood matted hair away
From the pigment free eyes staring back at him
Haunted and empty much like his soul
He stood over her shovel in gloved hands
That would dig her final place
She would find no rest here
Just dark sticky earth to melt within
Time would cause her flesh to dissolve
And leave only traces in her bones behind
The Traveler would be her only visitor
Unwelcomed in the scream of her silence
He would not be there to mourn for her
Like those small town gossips who told her tale
One of selfish youthful need
That chased her from this one horse town
Never knowing she was steps from home
Just below the darkness of his gaze

His first one was the one he saw
In his mind’s eye
Under darkness of night
Or before the moment
He picked the next item for his garden
The blood ran down her face
Like a river flowing out to sea
Rushing to join the other streams
In puddles of thick red darkness
The axe was stuck hard
In the back of her dainty skull
Holding her brain and veins apart
And straining itself to stay that way
His hands wriggled the handle
Now bloodied, soaked and slipping
Cracking bone as it came free
Splattering the ceiling with her life
For a moment she remained standing
Silently frozen in suspended animation
Then crumpled to the ground
His only regret remained
Not bearing witness to her confusion and terror
Her life escaping when she couldn’t escape him
From then on face to face
Was the only way it would be done

Weakened in all the right places
The floor beneath the Travelers feet
Creaks and strains below his gait
Blood soaked and broken corpses
Wait complacently to be planted
In the damp crawl space below
While white crisp snow freezes ground
Only the sweet hope of Spring
Will allow the earth to yield to his shovel
Digging down just far enough
To cover the secrets and lies
Their eyes sit forever open
That last look of terror staring out
Soon to be forever blinded by black earth
And kept from the light
With only the birds above as witness
The smell of rotting flesh
Makes him long for the road
Makes him yearn for the journey
Makes him giddy for darkness
After this planting season is done
Long after their faces blend into
Macabre muddy portraits in his mind’s eye
He will carry them with him
While he hunts the highways again

His gait was like his drawl
Slowly dragging itself
In determined lazy strides
Across dusty gritty asphalt
His glance forever chilling
Darkness behind grey hues
Always focused down the road
Beneath his haunted watch
True blackness revealed only
For those unlucky enough to catch his stare
Rusted red hands against well worn skin
Five o’clock lost in its shadow
Rough and darkened stubble
Jaw line striking out from weathered neck
Long and lean silhouette
Casts himself unnoticed in the crowd
They only see what they want to see
And the ones that would court danger
End up muddied by this stranger
In shallow abandoned nightmares
Reaching up to claw their way out
From slippery tombs below
Their last moments of sight
Catch only his shadow as he strides away