How to Corner the Market on Horse Cadavers

The summer Lily and I found the horse

in the woods, we would take other kids out to see it

rot for twenty-five cents. Once she swore she saw

it blink, so we removed the

eyelids and replaced them with the first two

quarters made. When business was slow we played games with

our lives. Who can hold onto the electric fence the longest?

Bet you can’t run and clear the barbed wire. One day we were

gone too long and a line of mushrooms outlined the body. We

knew this meant it was being reclaimed. Their tendrils tunneled

under the skin, as thin as it was, and we tried to

pull them out, tried to blow away the spores. In my

dreams I lay next to her and tugged on my

braces, my teeth slipped out like a string of pearls

while the fungus swallowed us both. After that, whole

pieces started to go missing. Eyes, teeth, hooves. The head

was the hardest to let go, walking back we saw it with the possums

drinking the water that collected in the palate of the skull. Our business

was over, they let us lick.