"Sensations of Savagery" (Found Poem from William Golding's Lord of the Flies, chapters 1-3)

Salt water on his lips,

Green bath of heat
Greasy decaying coco-nuts
with plums, fruit and saplings
Soil, palm trees, his blood through the air

Drawn first by dark green, warmer than blood.

The heat is fierce, sweating and gasping.

The pain of peeling sunburn over flush pink flesh.

Reassurance dripping from faces onto,

the cold, criss-cross pattern of dried palm trees.

Every so many sweets, pounds and pounds and pounds.
And now, gorging fruit in the forest;
The promise of meat, talking only about pig pig pig.
Ripe fruit. Hunt, hunted. Thirst, fresh water.
An unsatisfying meal, all are fed up.

The blow of laughter diminished
Giggles scattered
Silent.
Muttered, gasped fearfully
Storm of tumult arose.

So much open forest,
Darkness under the trees,
A glimpse of the spread sea.
The water was a thin bow-stave, endless.
We may stay here til we die.