Friday, April 20, 2012

Friday
April 20, 2012
Another poem written a few years ago and rewritten here. I do't know if I should bother with doing this anymore. Not sure I'll ever be pleased with the product from the past even though I take the time to rewrite. But is it enough time? The last post I've already seen a lot of mistakes, typos and I thought I was taking my time... I got to work more on my skill as a writer. Anyway, here's another blast from the past I found on a site I no longer submit to:















The Withering

... and Death rode upon the back
of an aging mare. Once black,
her coat now withered grey,
the bloated flies of man's decay
a gnawing at her festered rump.

Within Death's talon hand
the heart of man beat red,
its rhythm racing, its septic
fluids dripping from
the ancient reaper’s scythe.

Blind the moon.
And the tortured stars,
strangling on their own deceit,
couldn’t weep for the child of man
placed gently at their feet,
a crippled child supping, sipping,
sucking calmly at the tainted blood 
flowing from Death’s open palm.

Half devoured by a starving Death,
this infant’s flesh filleted to bone,
his guiltless soul stripped naked
on a cold, hard rock
offered forth as alter for
his fruitless life.
The child, this precious child
didn’t whimper, or cry out.


Three times the knife plunged deep
into his tiny chest ripping
through the sternum, lungs, the fragile
thoughts that innocence possesses.
With those three thrusts of steel,
salvation’s hope which mankind clung to,
longed for, shriveled-up into a black hard stone.
Man’s demise tapped lightly at the door.

...and Death rode past
on his swayback steed,
her shrunken flanks
bobbing up and down
as she pranced beyond
the piercing screams
echoing from mankind's grave:

"Can you help me, sir? Please,
help us, sir...? Please?"

But the horse cared nothing
for such selfish pleading
and Death— it's sad to say—
is extremely hard of hearing.
                                                rrw 9-12-09 (rewrites 4-20-12)


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