The Sidewalk

      Her red dress clung close to her body,
the steady draw of the rake pulling the fabric
taut against her pale calf's.  
Down the path the young man walked, intrigued  
by the woman busying herself by raking leaves  
off the sidewalk.  
Her face was strange, rather recessed, her eyes  
unusually small. Her mouth was wide, outlined  
with thin, ruby red lips.  
As he got closer, her movements began to quicken,  
until at last he was only a couple of feet from  
her, her work complete.  
      “Seems strange to me that you would busy
yourself racking this one space of sidewalk. Seems  
to me the wind is just going to move all the leafs
back.”
      She looked up at him. Then in a flash she
grabbed him by the head and broke his neck. Pulling  
him by the hair, she dragged his body into the leaf  
cover, then picked up the pole that had fallen  
during the attack, and began to rack leafs onto the  
young mans body, set just beside the one before.