Best Usurper Poems
Encased in an isolated castle of an old fool’s paradise,
A decaying dagger rests upon a distressed oak table.
Frayed book pages scatter across termite-riddled floors.
The calligraphy carries echoes of triumphant battles,
Vividly etched in ink.
A revered legacy is forgotten in decades of decay,
Its inked glory fading into disarray.
Reminiscing of bygone days when youth was a sturdy partner at my behest,
Now weathered crimson dahlias adorn the windowsills
Of a desolate dynasty,
As the last petal falls.
Echoes of faded footsteps can be heard within the empty halls of waste.
What remains is a golden crown with sanguine marquise
Resting heavily upon an exile’s head.
How do I conquer the bloodstained fear trickling within the fractals,
Reflecting off the scorching sun that swallows flames,
Swirling around the ashen pyre
Of the poetic corpses I’ve slain for validation?
An inquisition paints a vicious vermilion
Within the sobbing stained glass.
The once-perfect porcelain flesh of our legacy is flayed,
Surrounded by the whispers of forgotten souls.
Cobwebs drape over shattered dreams,
As beams of light punctuate looming shadows.
Concealed beneath cold stone lies the family crypt,
Patiently awaiting its reluctant visitor,
Beckoning the exalt through clandestine corridors.
Within the hushed chamber of undying slumber,
He recalls the tragic tale.
Before him stand his beloved wife and children,
Forever ensnared in the clutches of eternal sleep.
Echoes of the past replay like eerie shadows,
Retelling the grim chronicle of their demise.
His envious, wrathful younger brother succumbed
To the greed of his own ambition.
In the darkness hour of that dreadful night, the dagger-wielding usurper
Plunged their existence into oblivion,
Casting spirits of suppressed speeches to weep
Within wailing walls.
Now I am the cerulean dusk of the gloaming,
A burnt-out waxen ivory,
The candle before their tombstone.
Categories:
usurper, dark, fantasy, heartbroken, imagery,
Form:
Free verse
Written: March 05, 2025
***********************
As the final petal droops
upon quivering leaves,
while the soul begins to decay
akin to the evening lights
fading into a coffin.
Tears flow quietly across vacant rooms,
sheltered in the hidden retreat,
of a hapless fool folly.
Aged and forsaken, an ancient blade lies
on a ragged oak table.
All around the termite-ridden
floorboards are strewn with
tattered sheets of stories.
Valiant voices of victory,
vibrate in vivid verses,
preserved with lively Ink.
Decades of disarray have faded away,
leaving behind a cherished tale,
its inked revelations whirl into a frenzy,
as I peer through the glass,
reminiscing about those golden days
when my youth overflowed with joy.
I couldn't assist but notice
the drooping scarlet dahlias.
A gleaming golden crown,
sparkling with lovely
crimson queens
rests upon the head of a forlorn exile—
and that is all that remains.
Under the relentless sun
that preys upon the flames,
how can I rise above
the crimson chaos
that encroaches at the edges,
surrounding the ghostly grave
of the poetic soul
I have lost in the quest for acclaim.
Within the weeping window,
a wild wonder reveals itself,
draped in a vivid shade of vermilion.
Amid the whispers of wayward spirits,
the flawless porcelain of our past
now bears unsightly marks.
Fractured dreams are embellished
with delicate threads, while shafts of
sunlight slices through shadowy skies.
The family fortress,
frozen in cold stone,
waits for its wary wanderer,
beckoning the illustrious
to traverse its dimly paths.
In the serene silence of slumber,
the sorrowful saga emerges.
The embrace of eternal sleep.
A chilling chronicle of the collapse
cascades in the corridors
akin to a haunting harmony.
The aspiration and avarice
ultimately overwhelmed us
As the clock chimed cheerfully
at midnight on that chilling night,
the cunning usurper brandished
a blade and brutally
broke their beings,
birthing ghosts of grim,
unspoken words to weep
behind weathered walls.
At this moment, I am
the emerald evening
of the early dawn,
The waxen white wick
that waits before their
weathered tombstone is
withered to a whisper.
Categories:
usurper, analogy, death, fear,
Form:
Free verse
"My Kingdom will rise above all others. I'll always put it first."
He spoke with the devil perched upon his left shoulder,
but no angel sat on the right of this diabolical sinner.
The king pointed his scepter; his lemmings did his bidding.
Dethroned, he claimed foul to the point of 'ad nauseum.'
A whining child, toy taken away; unworthy of the crown.
Like Humpty Dumpty, he fell from his wall, his ego shattered.
Making up alibis while his lemmings battered and defiled.
"I'm innocent," he scowled, to his fealty of blind worshippers.
Promising, he'd be a phoenix, returning to reclaim the throne.
"Nay," vowed the judicial Knights of the District's Realm.
Unfit, the usurper who tried to topple their country's domain.
The Verbal War was fought. For months on end, battles raged.
It was the age of absurdity, neither faction would retreat,
and in the end, no one won, but the homeland was the loser.
The abuser, bent on vengeance, stalks those he condemns.
Millions cried, "Clip the wings of the phoenix! He's no leader.
His lies have breached beyond belief, and caused much grief!"
In southern lands he now resides, licking his festering wounds
while declaring, "It's just the beginning." and so the villain looms.
February 14, 2021
Biting Satire Contest
Sponsor: Edward Ibeh
Categories:
usurper, identity, satire,
Form:
Dramatic Monologue
As time stood still in the presence of the King
Awaiting its order to commence
The King’s voice echoed throughout the universe
Silence ensued, loud and fierce!
The four winds ceased their stirrings
Planets froze in their stance
Blades of grass stood to attention
As time glided through its tubular channel
And began its appointed task
When a war raged in Heaven
A battle only Almighty God could win
The usurper was cast down towards earth
Brought slow, insiduous contamination
on an unimaginable scale and
Time remained forever tampered with
Now flowing backwards to begin anew
From the moment of birth, death comes stalking
Men lacking faith see wrong and call it right
And pride and ego brand minds and hearts
For the potent poison seeped through all
Every creature incredibly made would be tainted
For the author of sin now roams the earth
And peace since that moment, always eludes
Deception and illusions, endlessly, abound
Hatred and wars plague the seven continents
Families lie broken and the young despair
As our world unraveling spins out of control
Time will end when it arrives at its beginning
When the King will make all things anew
~*~
Note: Random imaginings....thoughts as to why nothing is as it should be.
Categories:
usurper, imagination, inspirational, lifetime, universe,
Form:
Free verse
Written: May 03, 2024
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I witnessed the dawn seraphic sapphire spike,
I marveled at the world's exquisiteness strike.
The colors shimmered in the first light glow,
Cleansed by nature's tears of the night flow.
The cracks and scratches of each passing day,
Rest below the morning mist, silky display.
Tattered torn edge of an aging landscape,
Blessed and healed by the kiss of dawn escape.
These scenes have opened my eyes before,
However, their insight remains in explore.
A truth, now revealed, from within my heart,
After haze, the sun's limber rays impart.
After sorting amid the dust life's sand,
An array of the exceptional grew at hand.
A solitary grain amid circular void space,
Never did I predict leaping ways in a trace.
I cast my heart aside into the ocean,
An indigo scope of a replica of devotion.
Brimming with tremendous vision,
A shimmering journey toward emotion.
I let out a sigh and gave in to its might,
The glowing streams of sacred insight.
Permeate me with an empathic fervor,
Gaze is off rays of a sempiternal usurper.
Categories:
usurper, analogy, nature,
Form:
Rhyme
“The Big Blues and Baptismal Alice”
In the land of the dirty politician
Steely resolve was borne bidding
farewell to thinly veiled conceit and division
that particular brand of milk had long in the tooth turned sour
in her red-hot mamma kitchen
A racing Greyhound on the Going Nowhere Road
forever chasing the White Rabbit named Godot
counts time from its pocketful of ticking time bomb clocks
watching Pterodactyl hormones fly in formation
eating low lying ducks in a row
while the young Velociraptor sitting in her room drawing blood viper tongue fast,
has gone all Poe
The Greyhound turns tales around
and heads back towards Emerald City
flying fast away from a plague of Bubonic Black Crows
She says adieu to those dealing cards that were never real pretty
sitting at the Tea Party Table pulling Voodoo dreams
out of the Lyrebird’s duplicity
Departure
New journey
Two tokens
One kept aside for the Love
that’s steadfast and outspoken
the other for Bee Queen standing stellar
left-field not broken
The Buzzer claims the Chance Card
and moves way out past “GO”,
The Usurper Spell is now fully broken and blown
There on the open road destiny is cumulus now known
Face turned towards Big Blue Sky and Sunshine
a new life tapestry is sewn
Mystery mist whispering over Mountains of Blue
where angels set secret prayers
on the wings of swans who only speak home truth
soaring high upon Heaven’s stairs
singing loud and clear
new dreams do bloom
through cool clean white cotton clouds
face to the sun
feet on the ground
a new day has arrived
strong magic is found
Black ink words swallowed
charcoal spits out a burnt offering
through bitterful and twisted blisters
A New journey forward -
Home is calling her to the
Forest of the Three Sisters
There ensconced in her bucolic benevolent black heath of a palace
Born again in the Big Blues sings the bushfire burning in Baptismal Alice
(Lovejoy-Burton, August 2018)
"She's Leaving Home" / The Beatles
https://youtu.be/VaBPY78D88g
"Sky Above the Clouds", Georgia O'Keeffe 1962
Influences of Magritte, Bosch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(chess)
Categories:
usurper, courage, freedom, imagery, journey,
Form:
Free verse
The stranger is strange, pariah, leper sounds offbeat,
Neither truculent, nor relevant, all destined to encounter the doomed relic;
The bizarre outlander, alien to stimulate the instant pulse-beats!
The uninvited hobnobber, one despises to welcome in routine frolic.
The stranger is unsolicited, the object of latent fear,
As strange may be the ways of the unbidden ones' intentional cares!
The stranger is unfaithful: weird to tranquility, comfort and cheer,
For the sceptical one, we become anxious by a mere fateful encounter!
The stanger lies in our conscience; in a distant land in paradoxical disguise.
Masquerade, the image generates an uncanny fear to sigh!
Sounds delinquent to subjugate the wires of prudent conscience!
Nonetheless, cogitates as usurper of peace; an ineffable parti pris.
Self-centred, they are loquacious, spell bound like con stars;
Babbles from the masks, camouflages as the epitomes of pretenders.
Unknown, unfamiliar, stirs alarms not to mingle, to be away, to be cautious.
In disguise, comes the alleged stanger to ruin ones' peace to shudder and shatter.
But the most alarming of all preconceived archetypes, are the strangers:
Who lingers on, as routine friends and well wishers,
On whom we doted on, are the real dear strangers,
Who by feigning friends, acted quisling, an obvious stranger!
'Hold!' sometimes left us dumbfounded with their insensible fickle deeds;
Even when the unknown stanger might spare and stand by us in awful needs!
When our intimate ones deny to wink at the distress;
While busy in spilling the beans, our woes go unnoticed by the feigned well-wishers.
Indeed! They are the untagged apparent strangers, fugitives in our trials.
Beware of those strangers, whom we adore as near and dear ones, 'bosom friends,'
the agnates and cognates, to entitle the crown, “an actual stranger" who elopes in tmes of miseries!
All Rights Reserved © Silpika Kalita
Categories:
usurper, fate, fear, grief, hate,
Form:
Rhyme
Bow the great dragons, unto the mighty,
Ruler under heaven.
The divine master's iron heel, lies upon the
Serpents neck.
For brilliance illusion a golden throne shines,
Blinding those whom refuse to see the truth.
The trail leading unto the river of blood,
Streaming across a ruined country side.
Striking powers scepter against angers,
Weakest point his own peoples innocent
Beliefs.
How did this tyrant usurper create such,
Beauty with arrogance strangle hold??
A rampaging tiger tightly grappling,
All ends of a concord nation.
Tarring it's inner seams until it bleeds,
Internally leaving it unable to breathe.
Push wide the ancient gates, and behold,
The forbidden city of crimson red.
Sky pillars an archway, holding seemingly,
Up the very heaven's themselves.
In awed amazement beneath the great steps
Of China towards Beijing’s southern most edge.
Lies a glittering palace, of opulence greedy design.
Honor bound at royal bidding's commend,
Living china dolls, porcelain ladies of finest
Quality, his majesty’s playthings.
Green emerald eyes, flash enticing mortals,
To venture beyond safety's threshold.
Meet certain doom for those whom,
Trifled between temptations desire to satisfy,
Lusts insatiable thirsts.
Or honors sacred trust between master and servant.
The lion guards his holy temple ready to strike,
With sharp talons drawn.
Drinking the blood of his vanquished enemies.
But falls unto shame as blackness vail descends
Casting his dark soul unto the four winds of
Destiny.
Even in deaths wake, split by thunder, and
Lightning’s mighty quake.
Doesn't the poised hood cobra lie in wait
To protect this his sacred garden,
In the land of the rising sun.
BY: CHERYL ANNA DUNN
Categories:
usurper, beauty, dark, history, imagination,
Form:
Free verse
old Smeaton’s Tower
spends its retirement dreaming
recalling its youth
no light in its eyes
glares at the young usurper
on Eddystone reef
Jack Horne for Russell’s In the Light of Haiku contest
Categories:
usurper, history, light, light,
Form:
Haiku
Spent and Battle Weary,
the exhausted figure trudges the well worn path
like the to-ings and fro-ings of some relentless seaside donkey.
Utterly defeated,she resumes her rhythmic rocking, almost robotic in its ministry.
No welcome here for this fretful form
Out of time
This usurper of liberty, predator of new found freedom,
like the parasitic mistletoe as it clings to the enduring oak
Consumes the spirit
Outflanked by convention, choice simply a misconception,
The woman capitulates before her adversary.
The final shades of moonlight fade from the sky.
The child, enveloped in the first vestiges of sleep,
Surrenders its hold.
The early morning sunlight precociously animates its shadowy dance;
and Fairies cavort upon this tiny form,
playground of elfins and pixies;
the elixir, the effervescence in champagne.
I brush the hair from the forehead of the sleeping child
My heart is swollen
No enigma here; only my daughter
Categories:
usurper, allegory, daughter, devotion, forgiveness,
Form:
Prose Poetry
My shirt is splotched with spit-up,
Though my shoulder sports a burper.
My clothes are like a kingdom
And my grandson's the usurper.
He drinks his bottle, gives a burp
And then, without a doubt,
A quarter of what just went in
Comes, like a fountain, out.
I really do not mind, but learned
My lesson, truth be told -
When I'm with Henry, what I wear
Is faded, frayed or old!
Categories:
usurper, baby,
Form:
Rhyme
Blinded by the Light
The lightning, it was over-bright
vengeance, slashing a darkened sky,
awakening the sins of night.
The lightning, it was over-bright,
usurper of the dead souls sight,
cauterizing the heavens eye.
The lightning, it was over-bright
vengeance, slashing a darkened sky.
6/19/2016
submitted to – First Line Prompt – 2 – Poetry Contest
sponsor – Julia Ward
Categories:
usurper, dark, heaven, leaving,
Form:
Triolet
Reach Unto Jesus of Nazareth
Unto New-creation Realities
Never Return to Ur
Righteousness is Uncovered Now:
Utilize, Network and Renew
Never Retreat to the Usurper
Review Undertaken Narrow way
Unlike Nowadays’ Rebels
Nearer is the Real Utopia
Categories:
usurper, bible, christian, gospel,
Form:
Acrostic
Absalom’s Rebellion
After Amnon raped Tamar,
who was Absalom’s beautiful sister,
Absalom plotted to kill
His incestuous, lustful brother.
Amnon fled to Talmai
to his mother’s father, the king.
Absalom’s rebellion may have been avoided,
with punishment David failed to bring.
King David exiled Absalom;
had no part in the kingdom’s affairs.
This gave rise to dangerous scheming
of which David was unawares.
Absalom was returned to the kingdom,
but still banished from the court.
With only outward reconciliation,
Absalom listened to grievances brought.
Soon Absalom had a following—
discontent with the government spread.
He stole the hearts of Israel;
secretly planned a revolt to be led.
As the trumpet of revolt was sounded,
the prince’s spies spread news he was king.
David learnt of Absalom’s rebellion;
with his lyre, he no longer could sing.
King David was driven from Jerusalem
by the insurrection of his beloved son,
who took possession of the throne—
His unrightful monarchy begun.
The usurper planned his father’s death,
but in this he did not succeed.
Instead a slaughter of 20,000 men,
and Absalom’s death was decreed.
Absalom met his untimely death,
in a very unusal way.
Strung up helpless in a tree;
free slather for evil men's sway.
David was broken-hearted;
His rebellious son's death not desired.
He'd not have lost his precious Absalom,
had such rebellion not been aspired.
Absalom, who once sought justice,
by taking it into his own hands,
eventually plotted against his father,
with disloyal citizens at his commands.
Absalom’s rebellion started as revenge,
and later plotted to usurp the kingdom.
God stepped in to permit justice;
Absalom's Rebellion received no royal anthem.
Copyright © 2009-2012 Maureen LeFanue
www.maueenlefanue.com
Categories:
usurper, faith, political, son, death,
Form:
Narrative
Ravenous thief
infiltrating the depth
of our souls
stealing from us the eyes
of our children
silencing the joy
of their smiles
demanding a ransom
for each moment
Chameleon curse
mutating in the midst
of battle
clandestine coward
seeking escape
within the ruins
of the ravaged
Unwelcome usurper
draining life
cowering at the sight
of a pink ribbon
deafened by the sound
of love’s footsteps
shuddering at the scent
of whispered wishes
trembling at the touch
of hope’s embrace
haunted by the roar
of our silent prayer
John G. Lawless
9/13/2015
Categories:
usurper, cancer,
Form:
Free verse