o0 The Mockingbird 0o

Ill begotten hazard bore,
Before it all was hellbent lore,
To tour a house so drenched in gore,
A sanguine sweat in days of yore.

Beneath a sheet of icy snow;
As this there was, straight down below.
Against these evils toe to toe,
The wrath of She, I do now know.

Defendant there, I stood on trial; dreaming dreams in slow exile,
The verdict hung in justice perched about a safe-kept key and lock.
And as if somebody tricking, there came a tick-tock-ticking,
Recursive chant I heard the knock; the ticking of a broken clock.

It was in that March erratic, that I stayed there in that attic,
As I pined I painted piers and tiers about a stately wooden dock.
With my head so rife with tension, and my hand there in suspension,
I painted piers through pumice rock; out from the shore, a wooden dock.

   "Confounded chant!" I'd soon recant, effusive rant, revolving scant,
     up in the air, reverbing bare, a question fair: "What doth thou mock?"

Beyond my stare, foreboding clock.

And of a different day I mark, diminished dreams they lit a spark.
Of my being, in perceiving, lengthy spells that were so dark.
Slowly, surely, bitter, surly, caught upon a curse so early.
In my mind I wondered wistful; will I ever smile again?

Forlorn fate in fire flaunted;
In this house I remained haunted.
And the evils there undaunted by my cries and pleas for help.
As the hands of time took hold, and my faint heart grew so bold,
To this day, I say I bore alone the burden of a heathen's stock.

In concert now, it chants the clock.

With the burn of sweat entreating, I was met with sordid greeting.
A silhouette appeared beyond the painting of this stately wooden dock.
Could some unlikely soul be sleuthing, round the pillars of this pumice rock?

     “I see you there, oh shadowed snare, so soft and subtle in your dare,
       so keen it is that you're aware, it is from Her your graven stare?"

And upon this subtle aberration, lost was I, in this creation.
Questions veiled so clearly sifting, trapped was I, beneath a drifting,
cloaked in stories bound by bouts of bitter, blighted, brackish snow;

Mounds there were, amidst my foe. Snowfall sheets of qualms so weary.
Eerie ticks a clock so dreary. Seething, breathing breaths I took
In bleakest breath of winter's bane.

With the utmost in discretion, I was met with this transgression.
Gently tapping at this phantom, and imploring as I gave a knock.

  "I beg of you, this hollow being, of whose shadow I'm perceiving,
    What are you that I am seeing? I demand of you, get off this dock!"

At which hour, chimed the clock.

And at wits end now I wondered, about this soul encumbered,
But again I saw the shadow racing, tracing round the stately dock.      
So I jumped up, stark to reason: 'gainst my sanity this treason!
I frenzied 'round my attic chasing shadows into shock.

In rapture therein lie the clock.

And at once I was upended, of a voice I heard offended; dreaming,
Droning, bitter moaning, bent on maliced, calloused honing,
Birthed a vicious voice of owning, zeal in zoning depths below:

  "This today is of her kin.”

A drop of sanguine sweat I felt before my petty chasing knelt,
Upon a bitter challis melt the iron of a man in chains.

Lost I was, amidst the throe.

I had seen her kind before, in the early days of yore,
On her countenance she churned, whilst the fire within me burned.
A Mocking bird, of the absurd, cast a shadow to her word.
Upon my clock he made his rest; upon the dock he crowed his jest.

  “Leave the light here now to me; I say listen to my plea!!”

A slight divergence in her silence, malignant tomb of bitter violence,
Forgotten womb of viral guidance, emergence of a bitter sin:

  “This today is of her kin.”

From the walls there came a hexing.
Dreary, drawn-out bouts of vexing.
Slowly, sternly, stark and septic, bitter droves beyond the skeptic,
Lie in groves that breed a cancer; carnal creeds coerce a dancer.

It is her right, forever more,
To plant the seed of vagrant's sore,
And play amidst a glutton's gore,
Forever Her, her carnal spore.

© Chris Hawke 2014