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

Cold grey eyes stare above
To the bustling traffic zooming overhead
The Traveler rests easily
Closer to the underbelly of humanity
Even the worst of the worst
That lurks within these shadows
Steer clear of him
Any addiction can be fed here
Even that of the Traveler
Tall structures surround them
And offer small cell like hiding places
From the free world above
Concrete as cold as the killer within
Offers the comfort no motel ever could
Anonymity in darkness
A resting place and hunting ground in one
The Traveler rests his rust stained hands
Leans deep against the cold wall
And hungers only for the next encounter
Daydreams at midnight
Engulfed by the darkness he has created
And adventures yet to come
Drowns deeper into his muddy thoughts
And of hands he has seen strike the sky in vain
Makes him smile evil in his madness
Around him low life carries on
As the Traveler will come the early morning hours

Cold grey eyes stare beneath
Murky green swamp water
Filled with hunters and prey
Below a surface scattered with empty lily pads
As hazy sun glints across this pond
Heavy thick forest above
Almost motionless
Lets light break below
Momentarily allowing glimpses
Of the Travelers twisted dreamscape
The feast is underway
Flesh and bone barely visible now
As it sinks deeper into the abyss
The beast below the water
Feasting on remains
Still twitching and draining of life
The splashes of water get slower
And finally stop
The feast is nearly over
Lumbering from the depths below
The monster makes his way up
Back onto the shore across from the Traveler
Who stands in awe of one as brutal as he
Both have the desire for blood
Both have the nature to kill
But only one will remain in this swamp
While the other takes his terror on the road