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  • Trolls
  • Steven D. Schroeder (bio)

All signs pointed to them.At bridges, we spraypainted ron tolls to warn they spawnedunderneath and patrolled the boothsafter our departure, but we sworethey changed the charge from dollarsto children. Our epithet fit betterthan la chupacabra on billboards,so we sloganeered it from AM radioswired to car batteries. Rumble stripsbetween our drift and sleepbroadcast their laughter, their breathpetroleum fumes. They stolethrough our minefields, uncaughtby motion-sensing camerasand concertina fence, to stealgoat viscera for fortunetellingor lunch, according to authoritieswhose full titles started with certifiedand ended in -ologist. To controlcoded propaganda we disliked,like their expectant mothers tricks,we othered them. Informal pollsof their fellow-traveler personsrevealed one hundred percentintended will work for food to meankill words for good. Graffiti said yieldis imperative, and we believedthe bent stick-figure signaturewith fins and Hitler mustachea sketch-artist rendering of enemy.Though hired hunters couldn't readtheir spoor, nor hounds find their trail,all signs still pointed to them.Blurry photos always seemed to catchechoes of tails. We heard storiesfrom an uncle who saw somewherethat they feared fire. We scraped no [End Page 87] from open flames and carvedexclamation mark, exclamation mark,exclamation mark. Straw and aerosolturned our pitchfork into torch. [End Page 88]

Steven D. Schroeder

Steven D. Schroeder's first book of poetry is Torched Verse Ends (BlazeVOX Books, 2008). His poems are available or forthcoming in Pleiades, Cimarron Review, Copper Nickel, Barn Owl Review, and Drunken Boat. He edits the online poetry journal Anti- and works as a Certified Professional Résumé Writer.

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