The Feast

There is a panic in his eyes that I haven't seen in years. There is a cold sweat across his brow that reminds me I have places to be and things to do. But right now I just can't stop myself. I'm standing at the top of this massive ditch. This huge 20 foot ditch has claimed a victim. Fully engulfing and digesting my friend, I can't stop myself from standing tall and marveling at its power. It's just dirt and he's helpless at the bottom. He's clawing at the earthen walls now. He's ripping into the trachea, the esophagus, the intestinal tract. Soil is backed up so far into his fingernails and he can barely get a decent grip. The dark hole he's in, it's really spectacular. It's moving and it's growing all around this sorry fellow. This poor chap, he's really gotten himself into something big. When you're dealing with a monster of this magnitude you have to remember to keep your composure, breathe slowly, and think slowly. The undertow of dirt pulls harder and harder with each forceful leap he makes. What's this? His voice, or should I say the sound coming out of him, it's incredible. It's what you'd hear in the last minutes of time. The last shriek for salvation, the final plea, the last confession of a terminal patient. The vibrations of his voice echo up and out. Tiny granules of soil near my feet dive into the abyss along with several friends below. The shrill screeching of human sorrow is a catalyst to the end. A digestive enzyme in the belly of the beast. It won't be long now. He's entered that desperate phase where hope is burned away. You tell yourself that there is a way out, that there's going to be a way out of this, but it's only a matter of time before gravity takes hold. Inevitability is an applied science. A pile of dirt has blanketed his ankles now, he's shackled in. It extends up over his legs and to the hip. I think he realizes now. He looks straight up at me and there is a moment where I can hear the blood rushing past my ears. It could've stretched out for days had I not done my part. It was just too pathetic, too easy. I give the earth insentive to take the rest of him. I fuel the fire. I shovel in mounds of shit brown redemption. My mythic creature, it takes the earth and swallows it whole. I pause when the dirt has just reached the tip of his nostril. I watch as he takes one breath too many. Some microorganisms can live in nitrogen rich environments. Thank god for evolution.