Author: smithaw50

We mourned him as the rain poured down

and mingled with our tears.

We watched him shrink in on himself

through dark and lonely years,

a bitter man whose bitter soul

was conquered by his fears.

He faces an eternal judge,

no jury of his peers.

No counselors or comfort now,

no riotous crowds with jeers.

He’d seen death coming for us,

but his cries fell on deaf ears.

He begged and begged us for their lives,

but still we killed the seers.

So now we wait here for the end,

surrounded by our biers.

And through the silent, empty hall

we hear the demon voices call.

We run, and run and fall, and fall.

Fate’s laughter washes over all.

We killed the heralds of our hell,

and did not hear the killing knell,

the minor notes of broken bell.

And me, the one who’s left to tell,

was once a man, but now a shell.

The spells ignite.

The runes writhe and undulate to

make strong the binding spells that

keep me here among

the ivory skulls

and black candles.

The innocent blood

in the ink jar

smells like copper roses.

A scarlet droplet

poised on a silver nib

shines in the firelight,

an unholy star

chained to hell.

It desires to spread

and seep into the vellum,

recording for all time

the gibbering words and thoughts

of madmen,

and the noble speeches of

martyrs and kings.

More often than not,

blood writes them

the very same.

Beneath the fertile soil they wait, as quiet as can be,

the burrowing, burial vermin lie in wait for you and me.

(The living, in the days ahead, will mourn a little less,

accustomed to the empty space and cleaning up the mess).

And now within the churning soil

they set upon the feast,

devouring the flesh alike

of humankind and beast.

“And is there nothing left to say?”

the ancient goddess cried.

“No, we have nothing left to give.

“We heard that you had died.”

“A goddess cannot die, you fool!

She feasts upon your prayers.”

“But none has come for centuries

to walk these haunted lairs

of marble stone and precious gems,

now rubble on the ground.

The prayers have all gone silent, here,

since you could not be found.

“You only have such power, goddess,

as we choose to give,

and it seems our decision has been

not to let you live.”

And with those words the goddess

slowly faded out of view,

and all her power left her

for her reign was truly through.

But sometimes when the moon is new

and hidden from our sight,

a crystal constellation

shows her crying through the night.

Weeping at the empty altar,

crying through the night.

The words rasp like a pitted file against my mind.

They are whittled, pondered, sundered, and then reformed.

‘Reworded,’ if you will.

What is it that you want to say?

This story is a worm squirming through my veins,

writhing against my consciousness,

twisting into boneless loops

that pulse and sting and tickle and hurt as

I try to sleep, and close my senses to its persistent cry.

But it will not stand to be unwritten.

Do you fall asleep, now?

“The thought of you will wait, and remain until I return.”

Are you sure we will remain,

or sure you will return?

*The Worm* 3D art by Jon Botros

The fallen, forsaken, forgotten souls

are ashes in urns and bones in deep holes,

Consumed by the likes of the earthworm and voles,

That tunnel and burrow as deep thunder rolls.

Washed out with the deep tide of shallows and shoals,

The fire for the pyre burns white hot on black coals.

And you can now rest with your incomplete goals.