Somewhere in California
I lost my innocence
I lost my self.

Somewhere in California
I fell in love
I felt alive

Somewhere in California
I was insane
I was intrigued

Somewhere in California
I was afraid
I was alone

Somewhere in California
I saw your face
You took my heart

Somewhere in California
The sun don’t shine
The night is cold

Somewhere in California
I will always stay
I’d be condemned

I sign up,
just to mark it with my heart,
and follow you,
although baby,
I've forgotten how to hunt.

Difficult to make the right turn now,
maybe left is only
what I'm left with
to stay with breath.
Just maybe..
****** already knows,
where my heart is.

There is a body floating in the water of Lake Michigan again, but no one is willing to fish it out.  There is a body floating in the pond near my subdivision again, but everyone already knew that anyway.  
        I am sitting eighty miles away, overlooking a city that is not mine, thinking about how the moon outside my window is the same moon that you can see from down below in your partially frozen-over dirt bed.  I am thinking about the vampire that sits in his apartment, chugging two-to-three bottles of blood a week, and wondering if he is haunted by the same ghosts as I am.  
        It’s taken me eighteen years to realize that I was infected with a different variation of his curse all along—I am less human and more lycanthrope than I would like to admit.  I am not like you, I am not like him, I am my own breed and that terrifies me.  (There are black cats prowling in my heart and fragments of mirrors in my liver and salt that bleeds from my heels when I walk.)
        No matter how many rabbits’ feet I tie to my keys, how many dreamcatchers I put above my bed, how many cloves of garlic I hang over my door, I am never able to rid myself of the chill that goes hand in hand with the phantom you left here.
        Mother, I think I killed a man two full moons ago and I haven’t been the same since.  I threw his body into the lake and watched him drift out into the unknown, watched the kraken drag him down, watched the water spew him back up like a cork.  And now I need you to make your way back to the land of the living to sit by my side.  I want you to cut off my head and make me a trophy animal.  Create a rug from my fur.  Eat my organs and freeze the rest for winter.  Use me for your own survival.  I just want to be helpful.
        I want to be everything the vampire was not but my fingers are breaking from holding on too tight.

                                                               ­                                          I should let go.

Those green eyes and long red hair,
A fox too cunning to stay close to me,
I am the predator and she is the prey,
Although it doesn't feel like that is to be,
I had my chance - Once.
I had the upper hand,
I squandered my chance,
Through the eye of the rifle I looked,
And never sealed it,
I took down crows instead,
But her the fox was the most beautiful,
She hunts now,
But not for me.

Peering through the dense trees,
Sinking low, light footsteps
He stalks his prey.
A newborn pup
Yipping and clumsy
Falling over herself
Just to stand back up
And do it again.
The hunter shifts between the silken grass
And the soft clay earth
Keeping his eye on the promising young blood
Craving her bones and fleshy meat.

The pup licks her paws
Pouncing on small bugs and feathers
She laughs with a bark that sounds like music
Burying her new toys, she wiggles her tail in the air
Then digs in to the earth with zero inhibition
She is vibrant and strong, a natural-born leader.  
Happy, free, and full of promise.

Nose to the ground,
He anticipates the musky smell
Of his close-knit pack
He advances, visceral and quick
His vision turns a violent red as he
Loses his stealthy and cautious movements
His gait lengthens and he slides in the dirt
Snapping his jowls, he is wild with hunger.

The pup yelps and snarls,
Too small to fight back
But trying her mightiest to stand her ground.
Her attacker sinks his teeth in from behind,
Slashing his rustic head back and forth
Listening to her fading cries as he growls with success.
Shaking every ounce of strength from the
Poor girl's lifeless form,
He tastes sweet victory and steps back
Satisfied with his current catch.

He turns his head to call his pack;
A wolf's howl only the moon can hear
But he sees instead the sad, vacant eyes of
The pup's grieving father.

Crouching silently,
The hunter lies still
Barely a breath escapes
His agile body.
With the speed
Of a fierce lion
And the precision of
A skilled hawk
He spots his tiny prey

He watches
Using practiced patience
For the perfect moment
Then
It is done
As quickly as the hunt began
An arrow pierces it's target
Silent and quick

The hunter is successful
And the prey unaware
It was ever in scope

Sometimes I wonder
Is this like life?
Unaware until it is
Just
Too
Late.
Or am I in control,
Swiftly passing through?
I suppose it
Begs the question
Am I the hunter,
Or the hunted?

As fierce as they can be,

Tigers hunt to survive.

They only do,

What they have to do.

Did you know,

If pray was in sight,

The tiger wouldn't even attack,

Unless it was hungry for a snack.

Tigers aren't all bad.

Not at all really.

They just find their way,

Trying to live.

There's a food chain,

You can't avoid that fact.

They need to eat meat,

So what can they do,

If they didn't ****?

They'd die of course!

Would you be happy then?

Because humans hunt them too.

We don't need them for food.

We don't HAVE to **** them for medicine,

Why do most of them **** tigers?

Only for their skin.

Yes, it is beautiful,

But it's not ours to take.

You shouldn't **** tigers,

Just for their stripes.

They would only **** you,

If they needed food.

Food of which,

Some struggle to find.

It's sad this isn't the only reason,

That most of them die.

Those cruel people,

Set up traps all their habitat.

When trapped,

All is painful.

The more that they struggle,

The tighter it gets.

If they're not dead,

By the time those people come,

They will surely **** them,

And all because they want to be rich.

Tigers need saving.

They need our help now.

They're already endangered,

But they have no good enough reason,

To die right out.

We don't need tiger skin.

Can't anyone see that,

It only looks nice on that tiger?

But no, tigers get killed.

It's not their fault,

That people want their beautiful skin.

They may be running out of food,

Because they're running out of trees.

Without the trees,

They don't have much to hide in.

But the poachers don't help.

In fact the truth is,

They make everything unfairly worse.

So please help them.

Donate to charity.

We can save the tigers,

From the cruelty of today.

At the same time as this,

We could help save the trees.

Without the trees,

There is no jungle.

Without the jungle,

There's no home for tigers.

She draws nearer in her hunt for me,
While I cling to my world within;
Her poison dart seeks purest blood,
I am the child without sin.

Her alluring lips, the scent of lust
Like scores of ropes constricting;
I fear the Dark Angel will claim me one day
And fear I most that her love will be addicting.