steve1223 Poetry (718)

If memory serves me correctly
I must have been about four
Left at home with grandmother
To watch and keep me safe

Being a child there’s something I said
Can’t quite rightly remember what
But she changed, demon possessed
With an axe she came chasing me

I fled for my life round the yard
With a banshees wail she gave chase
Had she caught me I would not be here
To write of this terrifying tale

Round and round for my life I ran
The axe whistled past my head
Thank God my father came home just then
To him for safety I fled

Now you might think this is a tale
But to the truth I’d gladly swear
Even now at sixty three
I remember like yesterday

The ringing of the phone, so strident
Wakes me from my slumber deep
Who could it be at this hour calling
When all should be quiet and asleep

Voice so strange and yet familiar
Like an echo of so long ago
Travelling through time and space
Then it hit me like a mighty blow

This was my friend, my husband and lover
He was the one that captured my soul
Everything I had I freely gave him
Then he was gone, like down a black hole

No sign, no trace, just disappeared
For months I cried, what had I done wrong
Slowly I toughened, slowly I mended
What kills you not makes you strong

I was about to hang up, cut him off
Down the receiver I wanted to shout at him
With hatred and anger I hurled the words
‘Go on, what is this good excuse Jim?’

‘Darling I love you, throughout eternity
Nothing can ever alter this
Everyday my thoughts turn to you
Of you in my arms, your sweet kiss

Darling I know that I left you all alone
Believe me in this matter I had no choice
I know together we will be again
For that day I wait, I will rejoice

Darling I went out to buy you flowers
I just wanted to show you my love
I was cruelly robbed and murdered
Now I watch you from above

Darling tell them where to look
My body is jammed in a drain
Send them to where I’m laying
At the corner of Fourth and Maine

Darling please always remember
You were always the only one for me
I saw your pain and your suffering
Somehow I needed to set you free’

Next thing all I heard was the dial tone
And I realised my face was wet
All the things I’d done and said
I owed Jim an unpayable debt

He was where he said he would be
Found there after I told the police
At the cemetery I laid him to rest
Now we both will find some peace

What’s in a name you ask my friend
It seems that there is plenty
What you call the things you do
Affects how people see them

Now I don’t need to name the place
Where people murdered most heinous
But we sit back and just ignore
Because it was called ‘ethnic cleansing’

In the past this mistake they made
Let’s take the Ku Klux Klan
Maybe should have called it ‘racial cleansing’
Instead of white supremacy

We can go back further still
To the time of the Holy Wars
How does ‘religious unification’ sound
Much better than fighting a war

So you can see my friend if names we change
We can sit back and sagely nod our heads
This sound fine, nothing here is wrong
Must be right because no-one calls it murder

We shall have no more wars
We will have ‘national unification’
Should some die while this goes on
Why … just call it ‘collateral damage’

Excuse me, yes you waiter
I think you misunderstood
A tomato sandwich is what I ordered
To satisfy my hunger

Juicy, red, tasty tomatoes
Salty and pepper sprinkled on top
But clearly you can see
Between the bread it is not

It seems all over I am wearing
Tomatoes by the dozens
So please, I beg you stop right now
No longer am I hungry

You look at me but you don’t see
Hiding in here is the real me
I smile and nod so pleasantly
Surely a gentleman, you think

But deep down inside of me
I hide a secret ever darkly
So warily it peeks about
Then calculates the chances

I’m not like the rest you see
You will never catch me
Take my time, stalk my prey
Then take it when it’s safe to

So many times in past I’ve gone
And satisfied all my urges
I glory in the power I have
To slap you down senseless

To bend your will to my will
The rape is just the icing
I’m too smart to leave a trace
That’s why you’ll never catch me

Forty eight wills I’ve bent
Forty eight I’ve raped
Now I’m looking for the next
My glorious forty ninth

Clouds of hate drifting across my peripheral vision
and the stench of unfaithfulness fills my nostrils.
Disgust rears it’s ugly head out of the gutter to peer
about. With every breath taken I can taste the despair
in the air. The utter loneliness screaming incessantly
in my ears, over and over it assails the senses, no hope!
No hope! No hope! Constantly every fibre of my being
is being brutally attacked. Can this be a dream or am I
in some sort of twisted reality? Where do I go from here?
Here where life is full of meaningless emptiness. Every
twist and turn brings me closer to facing myself, and that
is my biggest fear, to find out what I am really like.

With blood red eyes the raven sits
And stares at burning sun.
What secrets hide behind those eyes
And feathers black as night.

Was told by legends long ago
The raven sees tomorrow.
Will he be able to tell
My thought of you eclipses all others.

So take this message to my love
And pray that she will answer.
Do you know if tomorrow will bring
My hopes, my dreams, my future.

Slowly I drift back to awareness
My head feels fuzzy, as if not a part of me
And it does not matter how hard I try
I cannot move, not even my fingers

‘Ahh, you’re finally back with us’
I have heard that voice before, somewhere
But try as I might I could not remember
‘You cannot move, the drugs take care of that’

Another voice that seemed familiar
‘Besides you are buried up to your neck in sand’
A third voice and I almost had it
Where had I heard those voices before?

When they walked into my view I knew
If I could have moved I would have been shaking with fear
These were the last three of a long line of women
Women I had beaten, raped and left for dead

I knew begging was of no use, yet I still begged
I realised I was halfway between low and high water mark
Tears were streaming down my face as I pleaded
Yet their faces remained stony, cold and hard

I could hear them behind me having a picnic
While low tide turned and crept up the beach
I screamed my pleas as the waves crashed over me
But all I heard over the waves was their cruel laughter

Wave after wave crashed over me prolonging my agony
Until the last wave that that did not retreat

Beneath the stately Tove doeth live
The Snaghagtooth most fierce
Should you venture within these woods
Your safety be not assured

All around there’s creatures fierce
On land or in the air
Some in treetops most deadly live
Skylourking to the ground

Beneath the soil not very deep
The burrowing Slather doeth dwell
Hither and thither they do seek
Come up to feed at times

So wiggle waggle quickly through
Do not gaily meander
Eyes keep peeled there’s danger near
God speed, safely to other side

Shards of light crack the darkness
Barely showing through
The echoes of yesterday reverberate
Throughout the cosmos

Pain and suffering twists and turns
Doubling back on itself
Deafening silence as the stars
Snuff out of existence

To the tumultuous applause
Of the gods the universe dances
To the unheard sound
Of the celestial orchestra

And man cowers in his corner
Small, insignificant, unnoticed

There is sweat pouring down my face like a river
And I’m shaking all over with utter terror
Slowly, unwillingly, my feet drag me in the direction
To the place where my horrible fate lays waiting

Oh God! What have I done to deserve this?
One on each side they flank me, there is no escape
They lead me into the grey room, I cast my eyes about
There it sat, in the middle, looking deathly ominous

It was the chair of doom, waiting for me, almost alive
They escorted me to it and I had to sit myself down
The arms wrapped around as if to prevent escape
Next to it, were the instruments that would be used

Now that I was in the chair what was to happen was inevitable
It was only a matter of counting down the remaining minutes
Then I heard those dreaded words, those fateful words
“Open your mouth, let’s see which tooth is giving you trouble”

Good old Jack, there he sat in front of me
The level slowly dropping, now half empty
Pour another, a loving glance, down the hatch
One after another and still the pain’s there

Oh damn! The bottle is empty, I need more
Stagger across the room to cocktail cabinet
Ah! American Honey and a bottle of Tequila
Both are nearly full, back to the lounge

That song about tequila runs through my mind
One tequila, two tequila, something about floor
Can’t remember, how did the bottle get empty
Don’t remember drinking it all, ah well

Sweet, sweet American Honey, my darling
My face is wet with tears, why do I cry?
I can’t remember, wrack my brain, nothing
And suddenly I realise, I feel no pain