Strange Baby
Carson Wolfe
He locked his doors—
the guy who braked
at my outstretched thumb.
His name was Froggy. He drove
in the opposite direction
to Georgetown,
is the temperature ok?
he turned the radio dial,
what music do you like?
A white crab
pearled in his headlights,
he got out, knelt
on its shell. I could have
run at that point,
but his car was air
conditioned, I had nowhere
to be. He pulled a rope
from his back pocket, turned
its pincers into its own face
and bound them there.
I’ll cook you dinner, he said,
and lumped the salted moon
onto my lap. It squirmed
against my thighs,
this strange baby, looking
to me for a mother.
I don’t eat animals, I said.
It’s not an animal, he drove
on in the stink of rockpool
fizz. The island only has
one road, I told myself
we’d loop round eventually.
He pulled into a hotel,
abandoned mid-construction.
Bare cement, windows gaping
like mouths. I wouldn’t touch
the crab, was grateful
when he tossed it
in the back. I stepped out
into the evening shrill
of insects. Dizzied
by the delicate racket
of wings rubbed together
—he took out a knife
and cleared a path for me
to reach a secret beach.
The sunset is pretty, like you,
he said. Like me? I smiled.
Like you, he said,
down on one knee.
