Red on the marble floor
a silent witness to the horror
Her blood pools at the altar
a stark testament to my sin
Her body lies lifeless
once so full of grace
Now broken bruised
deprived of love’s embrace
I stand frozen
disbelieving
the weight of what I’ve done
crushing me
A priest’s collar tight around my neck
a smoking gun heavy in my hand
She came to the chapel seeking refuge
seeking solace
She found only death
I was meant to guide her
but instead
I took away her breath
The red at her feet spreads
a stain that no prayer can erase
My footsteps echo loud and hollow
as I flee into the shadows
the shame following close behind
I never meant for this
I swear it wasn’t part of any plan
But now I’m a murderer in the house of God
a broken damned man
They call it a crime of passion
a moment of rage
but those words mean nothing
She’s gone
Her life ended by my hands
and no confession can turn the page
And now here I sit
on death row
counting my final breaths
haunted by the altar I defiled
by the blood I spilled
Her face her voice
they never leave me
My soul is stained
eternally lost
forever chained
to the altar of my hate
Categories:
bloodstained, murder,
Form: Free verse
"A rose thorn pricked my finger as I laid it on the grave.
Tears mingled with blood, staining my love's headstone."
~ quote by poet
I often write of tragedies and woes that darken life
Those tenebrous times that cause sorrow and strife
They bring heartache and grief of their own accord
I brandish them with words as if my pen is a sword
Ink spots drip with my tears upon parchment pages
Bloodstained splotches I pay to life as costly wages
My sonnets should tell of love and sweet romance
but no one dear to me is left to hold in a dance
I often wake in the night from dreams of the past
in the hour of gloaming when shadows are cast
and feel I'm drowning in a river, caught in a flood
where the current flows red, stained from blood
I've felt life leaving my body when I wanted to die
On bloodstained sheets, my soul prepared to fly
From emotional wounds I bled, and I blame villainy,
the cruel fate that took my loved ones so dismally.
January 30, 2023
Writing Challenge - B Word Contest
Sponsored by Constance la France
Categories:
bloodstained, lost love,
Form: Rhyme
Plan, in the process of hatching, gave romantic pleasure.
The Macbeths decided to dig deep for their dream treasure.
While honey dripped through their words, poison brim-filled their hearts,
Environs warned of the consequences of their misstarts...!
Were they not conscious enough to listen to their conscience?
Before the murder, to their hearts, they gave the death sentence.
Shining dagger mocked them, while it kissed the heart of Duncan.
Their physiques acted drunken, while minds stood like silk-shrunken...!
Deed done; glamor gained; power like domes of illusion stood,
They could not cover their shame and guilt within mammon's hood;
Wars lost! Lies of hex proved! Castles collapsed! Disillusioned;
Madness ruled! Bloodstained! Existence, endmost, confusion donned...!
Cain or David or Absalom of the Holiest Book,
Ted Bundy, H.H. Holmes, or Hitler of the civic hook;
No bloodstained has ever flourished in life, history says.
The full measure of every deed pressed down, the doer pays...!!!
27 January 2023
Categories:
bloodstained, murder, sin,
Form: Rhyme
Vines curved around the thin pillars,
Which supported the house that once held a family of three,
And was now merely inhabited by insects and prickly weeds.
The roof was bound to cave in at any given moment, no longer stable,
Just like the family it had once housed.
The faint aroma of freshly baked bread still lingered in the air from that fateful night.
Faye could feel the presence of her mother through baking wafting right beneath her nose.
The tire swing swayed slightly,
A hallucination of a young child kicking its legs gingerly,
Clouded her vision.
Shattered pieces of the silver ashtray were scattered across the porch,
The familiar sight of her father crushing the butt of a cigarette
And his dignity.
Fragments of that night resurfaced in her mind.
The cloying scent was suddenly replaced with a metallic one.
Crimson liquid coated the round black tire now.
Her father’s dignity was now so splintered
That his hidden derangement had peaked through the cracks;
All on that one night,
Which was supposed to be filled with love,
Now stained forever in her memory with blood.
Categories:
bloodstained, 10th grade, childhood, horror,
Form: Free verse
The bloodstained leaves of autumn fall like snow
upon the threshold of the dying glow
of summer whose conception shining rose
from breath of tangerines, but now must go
the way of brilliant life in last repose.
See not as dismal early closing day
when falling shadows kneel as if to pray
before the altar of a fading sun
when summer's fragrant whisper turns to gray
and blooming of the roses soon is done.
See not as piteous alders weeping
when October's taunting gusts are leaping
and one by one pluck memories away
of magenta dawns that would come creeping
and sweep us into reveries of May.
Indeed, for lilac dreams there is a cost.
Now we must bear the looming winter frost.
Though raven wings will hover upon drifts
of powder, rest assured not all is lost
for soon enough grow April's chartreuse gifts.
Categories:
bloodstained, autumn, imagery, seasons, spring,
Form: Rhyme