hornets

wet white teeth grit in grimace
the sharp clench of branding knives
beginning to pierce
piercing
barbed and hooked and seething steel
caught in the hang, dragging it raw
urchins scrape the intestines
puncturing the nurturing flesh
like the repeated bites of a molested serpent
digging into dendrites 
and cruel nerve endings
or eels pulsing and writhing 
like downed power lines
spasming in puddles, electrifying nociceptors
burning them in layers
with needles dull and sharp
like leeches latching and sucking 
dragging through tissue like barberry spines 
scraping and slowing a fawn 
in a desiccated forest
as it crashes into gnarled roots,
showered in the stings 
of livid hornets