Kiba, orphaned boy,
finds solace in feline friends,
feeding all the strays.
Granny’s angry hand,
hateful house on forest edge.
Kiba stays away.
Parents lost to time,
the cats become his comfort,
the kittens, his kin.
Cats, his congregation.
Primal force, true predators,
he worships their breed.
Meat shared on all fours.
Kiba feeds with feral cats,
Bonds of hiss and bone.
His human mind
imagines whiskers and claws,
a transpecies boy.
Unpopular boy,
bullied in playgrounds and halls,
sadly, he endures.
Three boys play a prank.
Dead cat hidden in his bag.
Malevolent game.
Laughter fills the room,
eclipsed by a piercing cry,
unnatural scream.
Kiba flees the school.
Into the heart of the forest
he runs like a beast.
Clouds gather above.
The full moon glares like an eye
in a deep, dark cave.
The first boy was found
ravaged, mauled and bloody.
Suspicions arise.
The second, brutal,
face torn off, body shredded.
Fear grips the village.
The third, dismembered.
Limbs lay littered across streets.
Cats howl in the dark.
The manhunt begins.
Police prowl for the killer,
searching for Kiba.
Thunder shakes the night.
Lightning shatters the trees.
Dark clouds promise doom.
Mountain in the sky,
The storm moves with lethal grace,
hunter in the night.
The Bakeneko,
immortal force from beyond.
A prayer is answered.
From deepest darkness
The Bakeneko descends,
red in tooth and claw.
Soft as snow, it comes,
dealing death with silent strikes,
sinking fangs into flesh.
Police find Kiba,
Torn apart, disembowelled.
Feline supplicant.
In the savage heart
of celestial hunters,
we scuttle like mice.
The stars, a vast void.
Moon, reflect a vengeful eye.
Roar, mighty cat, roar.
The End
– Peter Francis FAHY