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Retribution

In sandy Egypt lived three men
In ancient days when pharaohs reigned
The kingdom of the pyramids,
Osiris and that Isis’ den,
Whom everyone worships and heeds,
Or at least doing so they feigned,
And those gods too blessed them and deigned.
But these three men round whom my tale
Will be revolved, would surely fail
To get their blessings, but a curse
Of severe sort made their life worse.  
They were young and licentious all,
They could not turn down Venus’ call,
Which warmed their blood and wrought their fall.
Their mind oft groped for wealth and flesh,
Such cravings were a vicious mesh,
To which they found themselves entwined,
And this was the state of their mind.
Now summer hit Egyptian land,
They left their home and roamed about
Everywhere as a wanton band
To pirate, burgle, steal and rout.

Thus days went by until they found
A guiltless prey beside their home–
A widowed lady, sad and pale,
Her face was in deep sorrow drowned,
Bereavement made her weep and wail
Like a girl of a sorry dome
Whose eyes are full with briny foam.
She hailed from a rich family,
Still she could not live happily,
She had ample gold in her house, 
But heaven took away her spouse.
This lady was such beautiful
That on her face grief could not rule,
But for her those three rakes would drool.
Thus once they broke into her room,
Till sable night there would they loom
Without her knowledge there they stayed,
And as she slept, therein forayed.
That night observed thunder and rain,
Whose sounds suppressed her plaintive cries,
When beastly men with might and main
Ravished her in a frenzied wise. 

Thus they incurred Osiris’ wrath,
The necromantic hell-bound god,
He cursed them with an evil spell,
And made them sail through briny froth,
And destined them to horrid hell,
For they had done a nasty fraud, 
They tore a female rose unflawed.
They left her virtue wrecked and racked,
And stole her money which they lacked.
The greatest crime was not this though,
For which they should be sent below,
To tell of that requires a heart
Of stony kind or poisoned dart–
That night they did not soon depart,
But found a child witnessed their sin
And heard the noise of a sad din.
The rabid rascals out of fear
That they might be sent to king’s peer,
Once the sad child revealed the fact
And with his mumbling tongue complained,  
They could be jailed and badly whacked,
The wicked three their hands so stained.

The child lay lifeless on the floor,
His breathing ceased, his eyes were closed,
His little hands were trembling still,
He lay on his own ghastly gore,
His sobbing throat no more did trill,
His ruddy eyes forever dozed;
He was dead– all firmly supposed.
His mother touched his frigid hand,
As if it were a slender wand.
A drop of tear upon it fell,
Thereon the moonbeams glistened well,
A bloody child of a wronged dame
Should justly a strict vengeance claim,
And ease his mother’s grief and grame.
A subtle fume came out his breast,
Flew past the saddened lady’s waist.
It rose from an innocent tear,
So hallowed, crystalline and clear.
Like libations to holy beings
She sprinkled it on his pale face,
Whereby her wounded rage got wings,
It vanished fast lest one can trace.

To live with full impunity
The flagrant three men fled the state,
And readily embarked a bark,
All knew of their activity
How to purloin wealth they did lurk
In gardens, hills, oceans of late,
And how they stole a merchant’s freight.
Their names were S and I and N,
They were accursed and caddish men,
Proud and nefarious were they,
They did refuse to love and pray.
As fate compelled them to sail through
The vast seas emerald and blue,
Whither to go they had no clue.
Osiris harried these three thus
As Neptune struck Odysseus
With thunder and great misfortune
And foul temptations opportune.
For six days they float on the sea,
And yonder saw a pleasant land,
The nearby isle did ever flee
Like an insect that flies one’s hand.

There all at once something they felt
Beneath the boat whereon it stuck,
And thereby slowed its rhythmic pace;
It was a shore! Their eyes did melt
To find the land beside its base
Amid the gloomy marsh and muck;
Out of great joy they went amock.
It was a dark and pitchy night,
No evening star then offered light,
No polestar guided them ashore,
They heard the sea’s deafening roar.
But that did not preclude the three
To wade and veer through wat’ry spree
Of marine waves, so fidgety,
Until they reach a monstrous house,
A castle which great fear did rouse
In the frail heart of any rogue,
And there ensued grim death’s prologue!
‘A mighty door, a mighty door’,
One shouted to the other two,
‘There is hidden as large a store
Of gold and flesh as we pursue’.

A lamp emerging from the dark
Implied the presence of a man;
A man! A man soon there appeared
From gloomy world and eerie murk.
His long and furrowed cheeks they feared,
And curly hair and forehead wan;
They thought he had an evil plan.
He wore a grey or blackish gown,
His eyes were bright, and nose was brown;
Those eyes emitted grisly glow,
Acquired from liquid lava’s flow.
‘Come hither’, in an icy tone
He spoke, which froze their heart to stone,
Therewith they heard a lady’s moan–
‘Save me thou Lord, our potent Lord’,
Her sobbing touched mind’s inner chord.
And that strange man changed his grim shape,
His bright eyes changed to a child’s gape.
A bloody child then there appeared
With his dead father and his train;
To them they one by one so neared,
And on the ground those three were lain.

 
26th January, 2020
Strict rhyme and meter challenge Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Son of Spock

Copyright © Sarban Bhattacharya | Year Posted 2020

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