Haunted

I felt it – stirring, spontaneous repulsion, the darkness Recovering from the steel black holes Eyes intent on raping the soul Ravishing the vulnerable, Violating the hope, the wonder. He was younger than me, with teeth black from decay – black Like the mountain dirt, rich and pitch-black He looked like the stark naked Dread that came from the moment When his eyes met mine And I felt the urge to look away – Refusing penetration, even from those blue iris’ Where there were shadows betraying his deadly gaze, the hue of fatality Slain by a feeling that could not feel, cruelty The echo of drug dazed, emotionless pupils In the color of death, gloom Breaking through every temptation, Torturing hope with the hiss of desperation Misery, bleak and futile truths Silencing even the memory of beauty, The tranquility like a dream, too far away To ever break through the bleak That erases the chance of recovery with desolation He was young but he was undone By Xanax and Percocet – pills poured From emptiness, draining every Desire from the feelings that still lived – Until his mind chiseled out an urge That meant he would become the killer Who defeated my friend with his dark evil, hands of steel – hard hearted blows To the skull who had been his only hope For someone who might have shown Love – love that was refunded The earth thrown over him, editing His part from the stage we call earth, The movie of a life – ended Before the scene that told us This would be the true story, a thriller, A horror film that could sink its fangs Through the dreams that fled… When this nightmare bled through the stars, Inklings of what must have been – My friend’s last thoughts, last hopes, last prayers. It wouldn’t thrill – in any way, but bring so many tears – This killing of someone that only knew The music played by hope, faith and truth… The music that still plays in those he knew best, despite the news that drew so many tears, we all knew we’d been blessed to know him – Even though his song has ended and the other – his life Is just beginning in prison where he is prevented From destroying another heart, another life With his mindless murdering impulses, his Addictions and compulsions for wickedness… Despite him, there is the memory of one gone on To the freedom of eternal life, forever alive In the sweetest paradise – In tears, my heart remembers The way I felt then Before he killed my friend, before There was the darkest truth to face, The way I felt – was that intuition And if it was, why – oh, why…. Couldn’t I have stopped the murder That would silence the heart I knew – The friend who was murdered by a sin More foul than any I’ve been near, A sin like the blackest nasty, ruthlessness… While I cry – for the death of the one so kind, Haunted by a love that still smiles within… This brutal enemy knows the lonely of a cell Where I hope he will find the empathy that might Have controlled his blows, the final wallops – Against the skull of a mind who reflected real hope! Writing Challenge -H Words - Poetry Contest Sponsored by: Constance La France Word 9. Haunted February 26, 2023