image borrowed from bing
Rougarou
“All of us are God’s creatures, but some of us
are more creature than others.”--Anonymous
Its legend crawled down from the Laurention Mountains,
and its folklore materialized in Cajun Bayou speak,
as twenty deep descendants of Acacia,
those French-Canadian peoples from the Maritimes
who fled south following the French & Indian Wars,
way south, all the way to Southern Louisiana,
where some traditionalist parents still frighten their
children with wild tales about the Boogie-Wolf,
the Loup-Garou, the wolfman of mythos.
It was written that it would hunt down and slay
misbehaving offspring, and errant Catholics
who refused to follow Church edicts & mandates;
and that the Bitten ones, those afflicted, were always
living amongst them, that they remained under
the Rougarou spell for seven years, and each
flare up, or bloody incident, lasted 101 days.
During daylight the shape-shifters returned to
human form, completely oblivious to their
dark night persona. When its evil conscription
lapsed, it would transfer the lupine duties
through its last bite to some other person.
In the deepest swamps of Louisiana where
folks live far from urban centers, speaking
only Cajun, killing alligators and catching fish
for their meager subsistence, they know for a fact
that actual Rougarou haunt the hours after midnight,
and its death-rot stench and ungodly howls keep
them barricaded tightly within
their spindly heron-legged cabins,
keeping their hounds inside with them,
knowing that in the morning they would find
their chained up gator yard-dogs torn to pieces.
For them legends have actual teeth.
Glenn Buttkus
March 2013
Posted over on dVerse Poets-Open Link Night
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15 comments:
Scary stuff - what a great story and that last line - Perfection! K
Now I'm scared to go to Baton Rouge this weekend.
Those werewolf stories are still really popular. Nice write.
In the second-last stanza, did you mean spinally, which seems a bit odd to me, or spindly?
Thanks, "spindly" in my mind; slipped right past me to spinally.
whew...scary stuff indeed....there are creatures of the night surely....probably kin to the wolfman...i do love a good werewolf story though...smiles....did you see wolfman with anthony hopkins?
oh my..that brought back memories of my granddad who used to tell us kids stories of the nachtkrabb...and oh i was so afraid.. a creature of the night as well..
That last stanza certainly bites ~ A scary tale or myth, but I think some of them have a glimmer of reality ~
Legends grow from small seeds of truth. Enjoy listening to you read the poetry. Thank you.
It would make me think twice about a visit...
just love this piece Glenn. The cultural/folk lore mix of explanation and myth is great, so well used here. And I have to say, I think the reading is fantastic, great pacing in the speech, the tone of voice, such an outstanding storyteller vibe, I can, in my mind, see a group set up huddled close beside some flickering campfires or torches near a cave entrance, and the traditional storyteller is telling a much anticipated tale. Really nicely done here. Thanks
Of the atmosphere and tale you weave can come another scary/great movie like "Beasts of the Southern Wild." Something more supernatural, our own vampire-like legends.
Perfect atmosphere, I now have the chills. I am glad to be atop my frozen mountain where the black bears are in hibernation so nothing goes bump in the night. Yikes!
Excellent
I'm Dragon King - it seems to be monster's everywhere - the frogman the pigman the sheepsquatch the Jersey devil the dog man the werewolf the ghost the aliens so many more the Sasquatch it's like these things are created in a lab and let loose on purpose
The Crystal skull is more real than people think I've activated them once before they actually light up no batteries no light bulbs
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