Raven

The gilt hand ticked with trembling tock as seconds stuttered by The hour hand pointed midnight as the night erased the sky The funeral Raven demon black stared down with beady eye To ask the listening madman, the eternal question WHY? Unholy hour, unholy night, that cloaks the sins of all Painting world with graveyard black in mourning’s sombre pall The wings of death he opened wide and fixed his callous eye Again he asked the lunatic, the damning question WHY? Beads of sweat and beads of blood with scorching fever run From guilty hands of he who trembling stared upon the gun The madman in his terror fell as death stare fixed his eyes The Raven from shadowed gloom, croaked out the question WHY? A deathwatch beetle, beat his drum, in measured even time Echoing the fading heart of one who lost his mind The Raven stole his sinning soul as with a final sigh The madman whispered as he died, I know the reason WHY! Upon the clock of living time, the hands cannot be stayed Against each second, hour and day, lifes span is justly weighed The Watchman Raven bides the hour when everyman must die And few there are who answer when he asks the reason WHY?