Elsewhere North

Belabored breath

I can barely breath

Legs peddling

Slow

But steady

Whirring gearbox

Transforming my life

To energy

So we might heat our hearth

For another day

“Our” is maybe generous

Food is provided me

And water too

I share in the heat

But

I cannot stop

They will not let me

Me and all the others

Taking shifts

Endless toil

And look how they lounge

And love

And live in sweet bliss

The guard can see

I am on my last legs

But instead

Of allowing me a respite

I feel a jab

From his long handled pike

“Faster you dog…”

He growls venomously

I begin to cry

Make sure to go check out Ameberley’s After the End poem for today over here! If you liked these then you can read all of the poems in our collections After the End and the hashtag AftertheEnd

Answered

I stood at the edge

Overlooking the bay

Wind whipped me

As it had my love

I had called on the gods

I had begged

Pleaded

And the gods?

They were silent

My only recourse

My only relief

Those stones

And white foam waves below

I had walked from the town

Leaving Lucius to his trading

Wheeling and dealing

Trees so tall

They must scrape the sky

Leaving those vaporous trails behind

All around me they spoke

Wind whispering something quiet

I listened

My toes felt the edge

Tested the balance

The feel of the stone

I followed a path

Beat low by many feet

But I felt drawn beside

I lifted my arms

“What now?

What say you?!”

The silence was deafening

A shout so loud

And resonant it bounded

I ran to it

The distress too clear

I closed my eyes

Leaned forward

I leapt

Arms out

The world turned over

And felt the brush scratch at me

What had happened

I was not falling

I was tumbling

Who?

I held out my arm

Trying to break the fall

We hit a hill

And rolled roughly

We stopped

We opened our eyes

And he said

“Heya…

I’m Michael…

My friends call me Minos”

Not as Expected

Palos would burn my soul for this

No redemption here

I had finally gone too far

I eased the blade

Under larynx

The boy shuddered

Coughed

And fell still

All about me

My fellow soldiers did the same

To the elderly

The women

All these innocents

Blood shed

To draw and end

To any possibility

Of retaliation

The encampment had fallen

Faster than I expected

Faster I think

Than any of us expected

So few men

So few fighters

And now

Lambs to the slaughter

This

This didn’t feel right

Something was wrong

Then the shots rang out

The wind ripped

Tearing us apart

I felt stinging buzzing bees slash and tear

A soft gasp

Was all I managed

The men

Had hidden

In the tree line

Aimed down upon us

Waited until we were fully preoccupied

Busy slaughtering their loved ones

Then opened fire

I tasted copper

These last few thoughts pass through me

I should have told

I should have objected

I should have…

If you enjoyed today’s poem make SURE you go check out Amberley’s After the End poem for today also! It’s right here! The rest of the poems for this collection are in our After the End categories and the tag AftertheEnd!