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Behold The Reaper


Blue Fish

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There never was a silenter crew

There never was or will be

All they did was make trouble and they slew

Until that day upon that fateful sea.

One of them held a secret deep

One of them was different

One of them could never sleep

Once the sun slept after the hour spent.

Nor could that one have ruled before

Never noticed, never seen

He was the one who came from lore

If not for them could never have been.

On that day, on that rolling sea

He came from Lore no more

Out of the tales he came to be

Bled from the wounds so sore

Thunder cracked and ship planks groaned

The lightning flashed up high

The light it shed was merrily loaned

But soon it was gone on high

For day and days it danced around

The storm whirled us in a dangerous jig

Where the silence was there now was sound

Where food a-plenty not a fig.

The ship she cried from the brutal torture

Her decks begin to shake

The lightning struck her tall mast down, her engine purred no more

She could of this torment no more take

Silence, silence save the cries, of the lost crew

All but one of them weeping

Now they wish they’d seen him and knew

But for now, on-wards never sleeping.

Frayed the ropes pearly the hands

The cold full moon reflects

Now regretting forgotten lands

The crewmen swab the decks.

one is crueller and stands alone

No one knew him, now all know

He rules the darkness from his throne

To death from him all humans go.

He whips his slaves ‘till all flesh goes

And then he snakes it on white bone

To make the crewmen work in rows

To reap all and more of what they’ve sown.

No more silence no more still

Just the sea song of the wind

Whistling though the rib-cage shrill

Of those pure ones plus the sinned.

He has no Mercy, he knows no pity

Standing on the captains deck alone

He sweeps alike though sea and city

Dragging men pleading from their home.

His sweeping cloak black as night

Always restlessly moving waiting

For the one who wears it to catch sight

Of more mortals for the taking.

Then how long behind it billows!

As he sweeps it around his bones

Raising the slumbering heads from pillows

Breaks the routine of the drones.

Hiding the sun as it’s swept around

A whirling twirling beautiful dance

Only one whisper that’s barely a sound

“Time to go, you’ve had your chanceâ€

Standing leaning on his scythe upon the hills of green

Casing judgement over all, nothing escapes his eyes

Good and bad all acts are seen

Then his finger points, his cloak it sighs.

What then cruel Reaper do you do?

Ah, you release your crewmen?

An hourglass to each given from you

Hung ‘round the neck but the bad work again.

They’ll serve you ‘till the horsemen come,

The good they rest in peaceful slumber

The bad are made forever numb

Forever a groaning growing number.

Your crewmen work to that dreadful tune

Of the wind crying through ribs so hollow

Under the bleaching sun and moon

No other command have they but “Followâ€

Where ever your restless cloak does billow

Where ever you cast your eye in judgement

Always forever you stand at that tiller oh

Billowing cloak, oh judging eye relent!

‘Tis useless to be sure for all

More pity came from faceless stone

Everything from the stone home to gallows tall

Hear the same pitiless tone

“Times up, your sand is falling nowâ€

His fixed grin turns to you

“Don’t run or beg or start a row

Don’t act surprised, from birth you knew.â€

“Make it easy and just don’t fight

Then again it’s more sport to chaseâ€

His grin splits wide, his laughter’s flight

Joins the booming thunders race.

(sorry it's so long, I cut about six stanzas but these are really importent to the storytold.with out the six other stanzas it loses some meanings :crazy:)

Edited by Guest
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On the whole, I like this, though i think it could do with a little tweak here and there.

Once again, I enjoy the way you eschew traditional phraseology by deconstructing phrases and rebuilding them in a more unusual and interesting way. I found this piece pleasingly dramatic, sombre and menacing in turns.

However , my admiration is not unreserved. Every so often a "clumsy move" or strained rhyme can be quite jarring.

For example...

For day and days it danced around

The storm whirled us in a dangerous jig

Where the silence was there now was sound

Where food a-plenty not a fig.

...undermines my enjoyment of the whole.

I'm always interested in reading your works: sometimes they hit the mark, sometimes not. Either way, you clearly have some talent for poetry. In fact, (if you don't mind me saying), I sometimes wonder that you seem to express yourself more effectively in verse than you do in matters of everyday conversation. Even your spelling seems to improve.

Good stuff! :thumbsup:

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