The Fat Men

by Kristine Ong Muslim

Older than time,
they roamed the streets
and moved among men.
Slobbering, they wobble
in their bulbous forms
to hide in our shadows.

Their blubber stank of sweat 
and a hint of something darker.
With green eyes hollowed out of flab,
they never miss details, 
even the odd angles in the walls
where the lost children go.

Squat and bristling.
Squat and black.
Those big
fat men

smother sleeping babies with their thumbs,
pound their invisible fists against
each door to mark every home,
and lull us down to sleeplessness. 

The street dogs cower 
at the scent of their trail,
inhaling the curse
of the big fat men.

Squat and bristling.
Squat and black.
Those big
fat men

beat us to submission
and lead us to join them with our shadows--
with only the sound of groaning floorboards
in the eve of our passing

About the author: Kristine's publication credits and recent acceptances include more than 600 poems and stories in more than 200 publications worldwide. Her work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Dark Recesses, Dark Wisdom, Not One of Us, and Tales of the Talisman. She received an Honorable Mention in Year's Best in Fantasy and Horror and won Sam's Dot Publishing's James Award for genre poetry twice.