A Mid-West Memory

Along the winding road

Gallows trees creak and groan

Abandon lost along with love

The empty eyes of home

Rain-soak streaks of sadness spy

What was long since bled

Every tree or sheaf of wheat

Pasture, fallow, dried, and dead

The empty holds the memory

Of mother, departed love

No more to sing or dance or play

Voice, the mourning dove

Oh son and daughter, laughters loss

To grey and sad so fade

Father left four coins on eyes

The final boat was paid

Left alone, whiskey hold

The spirits led astray

Father coughed a fit of blood

A bitter crimson spray

Dust whirls before the glass

To catch the morning light

But their breath runs cold

Souls left, their final flight

I am alive and well! I am living in Australia now and am writing like a FIEND alongside the love of my life. It is all very hush hush and even after publication I won’t be talking about it here, but rest assured, I’m still creating, and I’m still living. I have been listening to The Handsome Family’s Far From Any Road and love the country gothic feel of it, so I took a stab at this style.

Where All Souls Tread

All is light

A white so clear

It hides shades of blue

And the caravan walks on

Limbo interstate

Going nowhere

No where here

Wasteland cold

Whipping up a vicious

Minatory haze

Slashing ribbons of us

Us sinners clutching desperate

To arms and legs

Skin on skin

Anything to fend off this chill

But still we walk

Feet plodding

Clay mire slow

For that distant shade

Saccharin darkness

Calling for us

Our desperate rest

But no rest for the wicked

We walk on

Violent Paths Cross

Wanderer dragged forward

Ever onward past dry land

Through downy soft crystal fields

Stopping briefly for water

In the midst of a silent pasture

Stream burbling pleasantly

Some distance away

The Wanderer saw another

Dressed in garb

So far removed

As his was also

This one in wrapped layers

All but eyes hidden

The Wanderer himself

Dressed in crimson cape

With deep grey and black swirled rags

The Wanderer drew his blade

A humming biting thing

Which brought death swift

The Stranger drew his

Curves wicked and barbed

Its every facet to bring agony

The Stranger gave a guttural call

Challenge in tone

The Wanderer met it in kind

With swift leap the Wanderer landed

Across the lolling stream

Slowly they approached

Blades ready

A careful dance

Not too close

But ever closer

Until

The Stranger lashed out

Flecked with something muddy

Unseen from afar

The Wanderer dodged all

But one barb

Which sliced his arm

As he too swung

The edge cut azure blur

Clear through

A pause

Breath

The Stranger collapsed

Felled in two

Victory

Surely

But

The Wanderer felt a burn

Of something insidious

Crawling through his veins

He knew what this was

And spat on the body of his foe

For the honorless poison he used

He walked to the stream

Dipping in his toes

Laid down his blade

And laid back in the grass

The wind whispered

The grass murmuring

And in them a reminder

He will not be remembered

Nor the trials he faced

All that he accomplished

Was to feed this beauteous place

Death March

His boot heels dragged

Through the lone dry grass

Sparse and brown from the wilting heat

His Planter’s hat

Wide brimmed and flat

Hid his eyes from the muddled hues

Above him cried

A vulture who eyed

The gait of a thing soon dead

How long he’d gone

Or what he had done

Few knew and yet fewer would tell

He did not curse his plight

As another man might

But prayed it be enough to atone

As the sun then set

And a pale man was met

He welcomed the stranger into his arms

He gasped a last breath

And walked calmly to Death

He fell down to the hard packed earth

The only witnesses here

Are two who men fear

The reaper and his malodorous bird

Outlaw’s Thoughts

Wagon wheel rocks and jolts

I cough the road’s rough dust

And ‘neath my jackets folds

Hides a tool of pain and rust

What used I to take a life

Of one held dear to most

A good and lovely wife

Of my deed I will not boast

A town rolls by beyond my right

Beside my path of troubled woes

With not an end in sight

And arrayed with endless foes

The path or town matters not

Pray forgiveness would I

For all the men I’ve fought

And left behind to die

One day I know from now not long

That I will surely fall

And with no tale left to song

I will curse you all

A Watchman’s Duty

I stood before our gates

Pike in hand

And ever vigilant

Breaking the rolling horizon

A figure approached

For nearly an hour

I watched its plodding progress

As it came close enough

I saw what it was

A lone robed wanderer

Their robes a sickly yellow

And twisted yellow mask

Grimace glaring beneath the hood

The eyes were bloodshot

And panicked

Though its pace never varied

I cried out to them

“Halt! State thy business!”

But still it came closer

I readied my pike

Tip gleaming in the noonday heat

But still it came closer

“I said halt!”

Again I shouted

But still it came closer

Its complete silence

Unnerving me most

But still it came closer

I struck out as it came within reach

And they collapsed in a heap

My pike buried in their breast

I leant down and removed their mask

Face sinewy and raw

As though they had been skinned

Their lips worked but no sound issued

I leant closer

Turning my ear

And faintly I heard

“Prepare

For The King is near”

Minos Ascends

The sun was never again so bright

Never so effulgent

As the first time

I came up from our depths

The ominous

Ponderous creaking

As the lift was hoisted higher

And higher

I felt my heart beat quicken

What did it look like?

The sky

Clouds

Sun

Only ideas implanted in my head

Sounds that conveyed nothing

But wonder

And possibility

With a bang the lift stopped

The workers outside the cage

Tied down the rope to the wall

The door was opened

Beyond the gathered crowd I saw the illuminance

The otherworldly radiance spilling over their heads

I stepped

Uncertain

But excited

Onto the tunnel’s floor

The crowd embraced us and handed us head bands

Inset with dark glass

Old bottle bottoms

Lined with leather

We placed them over our eyes and were lead

Single file

Out of the mouth

Birthed into a world so vast

As to leave me awestruck

No god could have prepared me

Could have forewarned

Of this vastness

This beauty

I wept

“Minos, over here!”

Cried my father

Broad arms waving

Face aglow with love

A bear of a man

And one who I had not seen

Not held

In several years

We embraced

Warmth and sweat

But gloriously rejoined

He released me

And gestured to the horizon

Amber mountains stretched on

Unending

The sun beat down on me

Warming me more deeply

More completely

Than I’d ever felt before

And I knew then

I would never again

Love those caves

As I now loved this land

Minos had emerged

Minos had died

Minos was reborn

If you enjoyed this poem make sure to check out Amberley’s poem for this day also right here! Also if you want more poems like this check out our collections After the End and the hashtag AfterTheEnd!!!

The Caravan Readies

Michael pulled the chain

Above the crowd the air horn signaled

The gathered fell silent

I stepped up to the pulpit

“As your new Caravan Commander”

I led in, all smiles

“Your Prolocutor

Your Supervisor

I vow this will be

Unlike our times with Gabriel

And that awful stint with Zeke

Both a prosperous time

And the beginning

Of something beautiful.”

There was a general rumbling of agreement

Keeping a respectful silence during my speech

“Our first order of business

Is to head north

We’re getting the hell out of this desert

We’ll return, you can be sure of that

But for now we need to head north

Set up routes with those tree huggers

On the coast

Open trade with them

Why?

You may ask

Well besides the fact

That I said so

Those goods

Will fetch high trade value

All the way south

With the Spelunkers

Wood

Water

Hides

All very rare

All very valuable

To those folks

What will we bring?

Valuable minerals!

We have a surplus as is

Iron

Coal

And silver

On each trip

We’ll be able to keep almost half of what we trade

Because of how valuable what we trade is

Compared to how common what they’re giving us is

And hell

This will allow us to more readily trade

With those moonshiners and farmers to our east!”

The crowd was getting rowdy

Excitable

Like putty in my hands

“Tonight we’ll feast

In the morning

We head north!”

They erupted into cheers

Then the chanting began

“Lucius!

Lucius!

Lucius!”

My people…

If you enjoyed this make sure to go read Amberley’s poem for today right here! And if you want to read the rest of the poems check out our collections After the End or the hashtag AfterTheEnd

Desert Rose Blooms

Caravan pauses

For an hour or two

Gas station lights buzzing

Harsh fluorescent glower

The heat still eases

Like half seen snakes

Off the cracked concrete

Though the sun set hours before

I eye their leader

Sight focused

Crosshairs set

He’s smiling

Clearly laughing

Sonovabitch

I suddenly flash

Thought fast

Memory bright

Back to my wife

Pregnant

Face aglow

Flash again

Her neck bent all wrong

Belly torn

Spilled out

This man

Laughing like a hyena

Scavenger…

I’m back and ease my breath

Timing

Carefully

Breath in

Release

Squeeze

Thunder crack report

Rose bloom of viscera

I sigh

And sit back

Load another round

Ease barrel as chin rest

I’m coming home

Rosalyn