it was open No ancient walls protected it from invading forces
just the yellow bulbs of the village streetlamps
sporadic and burning at night where the kids had yet to
knock out the glass with a chosen stone
old cars sat heaped up on blocks or jacks
or sat settling on their axles where wild grasses
and weeds did their best to absorb them into the
no mans land between goverment housing
dusty picks ups and cars cruised the gravel
roadway and kids on faded bicycles pedalled by
there were so many no one noticed the danger
at first
a girl was bitten by a dog but with a zealous population
of canines this was not out of the ordinary
however
people began to talk about the dogs behaviour and soon
enough of the band members had gotten a search team out
and cornered the dog
the local vet was called and diagnosed the dog with rabies
the girl was taken to the hospital and treated
then all hell broke loose
a close band of two decided to cleanse the village of a
potential problem and enacted an eradication on all
four leggeds
the truck with the two modern warriors was seen driving
around the small community
and where they went the sound of small arms fire was
heard as they systematically shot every single Rez dog
they could come across This system took into fact only
one distortion of truths That if one dog was infected
then the entire village would be infected because of
the day to day interaction of all dogs
dogs were dragged from under porchs and cars
or shot on their leads People were crying
children were hysterical and terrified as pets were
shot and thrown in heaps in the back of the
pick up
Being that it was not too large a village this job
didnt take long and people were afraid of the
two men who were going about their business
also so no dog was spared
they stopped and got five gallon cans of gas
and drove a short stretch of highway to the “pit”
where they dragged and piled the carcass s
poured gas over them all and lit them on fire
and just to be certian
after the fire had burned down a touch
they went round and gathered up all the blankets and
dog houses by the truckload and took them to the
“pit” and burned them also
One of the men was my father and for years
he was haunted by dogs chasing him and biting
him
they were so good that the village elected him
official Dog eliminator whenever they had an
extra dog in the village that no one wanted
it wasnt weakness that dictated the strong
but a peoples choice
after the great fire dogs were simply imported
from the nearest Rez or town and before long
the dog populace was up there matching
the two leggeds once again
The summer i went to live with my father
he told me he couldnt do it anymore
he couldnt kill any more dogs
his nerves were done
the dreams too vivid
alcohol would kill him before his fifty eigth birthday
and so a fathers job was passed down to the
son
traditional style
…
the dreams are not as bad now
i fall and they bite my stomach and chest
and i wake up in terror
and sometimes i am in a village of dog houses
being consumed by flames
they say fire cleanses
but its so damned hot
and i wake up sweating
..O..
