The Scourge

The Scourge        7/1/2016

Be careful what you lean on

Lest it be

Suddenly removed

Leaving you to tumble

Head over heels.

Falling far below

Without a handhold

Spiraling down a wormhole

Desperate and alone.

I leaned on many things

And all of them disappeared

Swept away before my eyes

In a deadly

Coups De grace.

Mortally wounded

And free falling down

I was left for dead

In a haunted house.

I knew

But could not see

And I understood

But had not lived. 

A fattened calf

Sacrificed unaware

Nothing but a heavy debt

Sold for a song. 

A still living avatar

Force to witness the end

My nose rubbed in defeat

Over and over again. 

Nothing but a dead slab of meat

Awake but motionless

A passionless heap

Empty and limp. 

Savaged by predators

And picked clean by greed

The unconscious body

Used and defiled.

I walked with the ghosts

Bloodless in the shadows

A memory unable to surrender

And a soul

Unable to escape. 

I should have known better

And shook myself awake

Better able to fight

And survive. 

Avoiding the fall

And keeping the treasure

A wise steward of fortune

Rich and fat.

But the rich

And the fat

Remain as they were

Safe in the castles

Protected and blind.

Seduced by power

And all that it will buy

They just keep on doing

What they always did before. 

But in loss

We are chastened

And in defeat

We must question. 

Learning by error

We either grow or die

Forced to seek out answers

Buried in our soul.