Tag: nature

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

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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.

Mysterious Grandeur

I’ve always loved nature

“What was that?”

Its mysterious grandeur

“I think it’s coming closer…”

All of life’s wonder coalesced

“Jesus, it must be huge…”

In every sight beheld

“Oh my god!”

And in the face of such magnificence

“It got Mark!”

We find we are but cattle

“Jesus Christ it’s so fast!”

For something ravenous

“This was a mistake…”

And which has always preyed upon

And hungered for

Those fretting

Odd little things

Which call themselves Man

The Azure Forest

The door swung open

Soundless

Before me lay a forest

Drenched in emerald

But fading to a deep blue

In little more than a few meters

As though the sun

Brilliant as it shone

Could only impress upon me

But this small section of sight

I walked and all of me was heavy

Like a dream torpidity I felt the drag

I opened my mouth to call

To search for another

Who tread these verdant paths

But nothing came out

I slowly turned my sight skyward

Then I saw it

Just below the treetops

A shimmering blanket of wave

Where danced the rays of sun

This forest was also a sea

I do not drown

And I know these paths well

Though I never walked them

And upon this path

Quite by chance

I found another

She took my hand

And I, hers

And together we forged ahead

Deeper down its winding paths

There was something familiar

Something familial in her touch

A lover long lost

But no memories to say so

Still

I know her

And she knows me

And together

We forge a world

In the endless blue

Dear Little Danny

He was always the favorite

Dear little Danny

How mother doted on him

While I was left

Alone in the library

With my studies

And my thoughts

And my plans

All these years later though

I stand upon the precipice

Of a tall stone shaft

At the bottom of which lies

The broken body of

Dear little Danny

I can hear the tell-tale skitter

From the numerous holes in the walls

Before the multitudinous hordes

Spill forth

I watch the gruesome chaos unfurl

As he is devoured whole

Little more

Than a weak moan escaping his lips

Before he is gone

Remembered by none

Save me

And the rats which he fed

Directional Ambiguity

“This way!”

I cried to my companions

Backpack jostling

As I crested the top

A sea of pines

Spilled out below me

Stretching on beyond horizon

Completely unbroken

I stopped

And hesitated a moment

Pulling out my map

Squinting at the formations

Then flipping it over

Considering all angles

Soon my comrades caught up

“Well?”

One wheezed as he collapsed

Pulling out waterskin

And quenching thirst

“I may

Or may not

Have absolutely no idea

Where we are…”

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

The First Push

The crosses lined the mountain ridge

Men nailed in place

With thick wooden stakes

Hands bloodied messes

Ankles near torn in half

Their screams rained down on those below

If one fell silent

One of the Kilkenny’s would come

Pike in hand

And stab the man

So he would once more take up the cry

Their prisoners of war

Were these men

And cruel was this torture

But as I hid in the trees just below

I still felt guilty

For what was about to come

The swift death

The unrelenting efficiency

And the total destruction of their lives

Elder Amelia counseled

No mercy to those who profane

No second chances for those demons

I readied my bow

Michael had done a good job

The arrows were perfect

I drew back

Breath withdrawn

I aligned my aim

Released the breath

And let loose the missile

A gentle whistle

The man dropped

I placed a crooked finger

Between my lips

Letting forth a more piercing whistle

This was the signal

All along the ridge the underbrush moved

Palos watched over our advance

Kilkenny after Kilkenny fell to our blade and bow

He was proud

The ridge was ours almost immediately

Without a cry from their men

We slit the throats of our own

Hung from those beams

To cease their cries

To ease their pain

To warn the enemy

Death was come

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!!!

Preparations are Made

“The bastards’ll flay their prisoners

Then make ’em eat the flesh!”

Michael chittered

Hands working nervously

Over an arrow he was fitting

“Have you seen this

Or even had someone else

Who saw it directly?”

I smirked

Waxing my bow’s string

The bee’s wax coating nicely

“I killed three all on my own

Without any kind of fight.”

Yes the moment I started this

The moment I damned us

To the ministrations

Of those psychotic fanatics

“Well

Not as such I suppose…”

Michael lowered his head

“But you hear the screams

From atop the mountains

Whatever they’re doing

It’s hellish for sure.”

He nodded at this

To punctuate his point

I shrug and set my bow down

“You’ve a point I guess”

Those screams

Gods old and new

Whatever they’re doing

I hoped to never find out

I picked a bit of dried venison

From my tooth

Sighed and stood up

“Let me know

When the arrows are ready

I’m itching for some Kilkenny blood”

I walked from the cabin

Leaving Michael to his delicate

And precise work

Outside I saw a few riders

Astride their steeds

Noble visage of order

Appointed by our gods

Palos and Mineer

Twins of fire and ice

Their hide capes died in reds

Their bows, white and stark

I know as long as our gods watch

We shall not fail

If you enjoyed this make sure to read Amberley’s poem for today! read it here! Everyone is converging in her stories, so if you need to catch up make sure to read everything in our collections After the End~