steve1223 Poetry (718)

I'm working out at Wongilly Station
My job there is mending fences
Most nights beneath the stars I sleep
The campfire my sole companion

Sometimes I shoot a roo for food
Then there is meat aplenty
Fire crackling and meat sizzling
Gets my mouth to watering

From out of the dark so quietly
The blackfellas start coming
Don't know how, but they all know
Tonight roo is on the menu

The eerie sound of didgeridoo
Soon fills the night air
Some here, some there, the singing started
We soon had a corroboree going

Bodies twisting by flickering fire
And drink passed from hand to hand
As the night draws to a close
There's bodies everywhere laying

Woke by sun in eyes shining brightly
This is Sunday, day of rest
Gone were all the blackfellas
Just as quietly as arrived

I love the sound the steel makes as it slides over the knife
Fifty two, fifty three, fifty four, all the way to one hundred
Now it is so sharp, so beautifully shiny, oh so sharp
Lovingly I wrap it in it’s own soft velvet wrapping

Next comes my little baby, my wonderful bone saw
With it I will take my souvenir, the left foot
I have a whole shelf full of left feet, all in a row
I giggle as I chant, “left, left, pick up those left feet.”

I am almost rolling on the floor laughing, doubled over
Tears running down my cheek, that’s how hard I laugh
Showed that drill sergeant what for, he was my first
Time to go, time to add another left foot to the collection

You ask me why do I cry, these tears upon the ground I spill
This wretchedness that grips my soul, what brings it all about
Look around my friend, look, before your eyes what do you see

In the gutters children dying, stomachs bloated, starved for food
The rich get richer, tables laden, only the best will do for them

People dying of diseases, medicines there are that could easily help
No insurance, we will not treat you, if you die that’s not our problem

Families splitting, children broken, take the blame upon themselves
All this pain and insecurities, and so the cycle begins again

Crime is rising, home invasions, even the elderly not safe at home
Streets not safe to walk day or night, drunken teens ready to fight

Judges, lawyers, police and more, upholders of all that’s just
So many bent and crooked, manage to turn a blind eye

Children innocent and young, preyed on by those who should protect
Priests and teachers abuse them, managed to slip between the cracks

You ask me why do I cry, these tears upon the ground I spill
This wretchedness that grips my soul, what brings it all about
This is but a small portion, evilness that grips the world
Only one can make a difference, only one can make a change
I keep praying that it happens, before it is all too late

Can you imagine the deafening chanting
As the tears evaporate at the rising of the sun
Your obsession to orchestrate scatters in the wind
And like a caged animal battles with insanity
Sitting there melancholic, sober and thirsty
Empty ladle in hand, waiting, waiting
Waiting to alleviate this all enveloping lunacy

Like a backward origami you unfold from the ground
Arms waving as if scribbling your name across the sky
Is this the highlight of your existence ?
Having grazed so close to insanity , and survived
This dose of so called truth and reality
As the shot rings out, the splatter of blood on wall
And the splintering of here and now

He’s a liar, a thief and a fornicator
To me he is the scum of the earth
Doesn’t matter if it is male or female
To him they’re the same, makes no distinction

I can hear the blood in my ears pounding
The rage burns, it is consuming me
Voice keeps talking, guiding me
One hammer blow and dead he lays

On street corner the harlot stands
An abomination to all that’s right
Flaunts her body, talks so crude
Does she think that I would want her

Again the voice speaks quite clearly
I know my duty, what must be done
Through the air my hammer flashes
Split her skull, blood everywhere

God praises my swift action
Tells me I am his beloved son
I must rid the world of evil
One by one I must slay them down

You don’t understand, I have a mission
Don’t measure up, then you are on my list
Only those that are blessed saintly
Will survive the wrath of God

Screams of tomorrow
Echo through the jagged existence
Of yesteryear

Tears down the face stream
As the pain of knowledge
Becomes unbearable

Like flashes of lightning
What has been intrudes into now
Tainting perceptions of what is to come

Even amongst this cacophony
Of the celestial orchestra
There are periods of silence

Silence so intense you can hear
The tears of the butterflies
As they hit the ground

And the groan of the Earth
As she picks up her skirt readying herself
For another cycle

In the midst of all this
Sits he quietly
Questioning his sanity

Not one to date has escaped their plight
Though God knows they put up a fight

Above the mincer they hung on a chain
While I laughed and slowly sipped champagne

Slowly I dropped them, the mincer was fed
While their screams echo around in my head

Usually stay alive til it reaches their waist
To make sure they did not die in haste

People ask me what is my secret
The veggies I grow are in top condition
I smile and say, ‘blood and bone I use.’
And that I declare is my only admission

It is morning, seems that once again I have survived the night.
There are not many places left to hide, most have been taken,
the mutants have moved in. They are not the worry, they are harmless.
It is the living we have to worry about. They hunt us down to
eliminate us. We have done them no harm.

It is not our fault we contracted the disease. We did not produce it.
It was them, the living. They engineered the disease in their labs.
They wanted to wipe us out, eliminate the black threat, or so it
was said. But it backfired. Yes, it did kill us, but, we are now the walking dead. You did this to us.

As I sit here contemplating what is left of my 'life' the nicotine
of my cigarette and the caffeine of my coffee soothe me. Soon I must
move on, maybe to the country where there are less of the living.
For now I sit watching the smoke spiraling towards the ceiling.
Time enough to finish my coffee and smoke before I move.

Today I tried to kill myself
My rifle fully loaded
Off to the shed I slowly went
To end what I call misery

In my mouth the barrel went
And then I pulled the trigger
My head I expected to be blown off
But all I heard was clicking

I tried again the same result
Two, three, four times and more
All along the same effect
Just a sad and lonely clicking

I aimed the rifle in the air
Just carelessly pulled the trigger
A loud cracking made me jump
Now there’s a hole in the ceiling

Quick as a flash back in my mouth
The only sound was clicking
Aim it back into the air
More holes in my ceiling

Back and forth so many times
My head’s still on my shoulders
The only thing that has changed
More damn holes in my ceiling

I don’t understand, I don’t know why
Why can’t I end my existence
Could it be that God does care
And my future could be brighter

Slowly I walk back into the house
To the sound of the phone ringing
On the phone is my wife
Begging for my forgiveness

Tears of joy bathe my face
How close I came to losing all
In the background the Angel smiles
As he slowly wings back to Heaven

I can feel the hat, thick and tangible
It is like a living entity all around me
Black and putrid, it assails the nostrils
It rolls onto the taste buds, tasting like death

Through red rimmed eyes I look at you
Already I can see you laying there
Sliced, gutted, screaming in utter agony
As you beg the life slowly flees from you

I, cold and calm, like an avenging angel
Stand over you and plunge the knife again
Again and again, thick red blood squirting
Spraying those damn lace curtains of yours

As you are near death you ask the question, “why?”
Why? There are so many reasons you b*tch
All these years you made my life a misery
You sanctimonious Sunday bloody Christian

They only saw the good side, the church side
Where you prayed so fervently for souls
At home you showed your true side
You’d scream at me and hurl abuse

For so many years I took it all
But there’s a time the worm must turn
Today, right now, I nod and smile
For tomorrow could be the day

When I was born I was so old
Was almost ninety seven
And as the years progressed along
I was getting so much younger

In mid of life I was forty five
Was an age most think wisely
Another thirty found me young
In midst of teens I’m sitting

So much I’ve learned over the years
Too bad I’m getting younger
Now my life’s end I near
Can’t talk I’m just a baby

Where to from here, I’ve no idea
Could be I disappear, forever

There was an egg who sat on a wall
He was short, so not very tall
He wobbled and shook, down he fell
Landing he shattered, could hear death’s bell

There stood a bridge in Old London Town
The terrorists travelled to blow it down
Bricks and stones flying through the air
And killed a passer-by, a lady so fair

There was a young girl whose lamb was black
The kids at school took it out the back
With a slice and a hack they ended it’s life
Lambs must be white, or else there’s strife

This girl with a spider her breakfast shared
People around just stared and stared
She didn’t care, he was a rather nice spider
After all’s said and done, also a good provider