Red of blood
Green of puss
Black of veil
Brown of earth
Brush with death
Spring’s Abysmal Guile
By Sy Roth
A vapor rises, rank as the charnel pit,
a corruption of a miasma vast,
as though some sepulcher, long sealed,
split its stony jaws to breathe.
Vile exhalation of a corrupted world.
The reveler, unwitting wretch
treads the decadent fields where verdure writhes,
each blade a hostile tendril, squamous, cold,
glistening with ichor
No earthly fount its progenitor.
He deems the shade of evil vanquished,
trampled beneath his hobnailed boot.
The soil heaves with malefic will,
its roots, like veins of some primordial fiend,
pulses with a rankness older than the stars,
a stench that whispers of aeons lost.
Spring cloaks itself in verdant pall,
no bloom, but scales of a vast, unuttered thing,
its thorns a raven’s beak, evermore to rend, to sow, to bespoil.
He quaffs the tainted zephyr,
proclaiming triumph over a gloaming moon,
Swept in the season’s unseen talons,
fathomless ennui
creeps through his sinews,
entombing his soul in an abysmal cleft unshriven.
As the paradigm of evolution down the line
formulates a set of human values of intent,
the survival instinct, an axiomatic need,
gets woven in the fabric of consciousness.
The seeds of empathy embedded in the mind
germinates and grows as sapling of humane traits.
The buds of beliefs blossom to adorn
the structured societal norm of harmony.
But the mist of intolerance of the complex times,
clouds the modern man’s jaundiced eye,
altruistic intents are shrouded by pall of prejudice,
fabricating a biased and motivated value system.
In the abyss of narrow ethical perception
alienated lives wander in the secluded alley.
For them to find oneness of soul under the divine sky,
it’s time to clear the predisposed colored vision.
June 23, 2021
Contest : Jaundiced Eye
Sponsor : Unseeking Seeker
Pall Revere was renouned four his audacious mid-knight Ryde,
End alsow fore his silversmithin', inn witch he took grate pried!
Butt he is most famed four ridin' like a bat outta ewe no where,
Two alert Hancock, Adams, et al, fore there lives two spare!
Two lanterns inn a church belfry signaled en a-salt bye see;
(Pall gnu thee Brits were cummin as soon as they'd sipped there tee!)
On a borrowed hoarse he flu thru thee nite, thee patriots too summon,
Yellin' two ever'won, "Thee Brits ar cummin! Thee Brits ar cummin!"
Pore Pall was later captured end his hoarse was confiscated two boot,
Butt thee Brits released him two thumb it back too Lexington afoot!
Four pall bearers with a coffin were not,
in a cemetery able to find their spot.
They walked ‘round and around
all the cemetery ground,
so I’m certain they have lost the plot.
To wait on a dream ...
Hope makes one a fool, replete,
And laughs at the lie.
barely pink blossoms
Vincent’s funeral blanket
lay atop his grave
Kathryn McLoughlin Collins
July 26, 2012
winter sheds its pall
flora springs to life anew
with flamboyant flair
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
© All Rights Reserved
Placed No. 2 in Carol Brown's "Nature Comes To Life" Contest - February 2011
Round goes the spiral
looping the path.
Straight stand the stones
high in green grass.
Round goes the moat
circling the tor;
solitary stanchion saracens
high altars they bore.
Round goes the blood
red twining the past
tall stand the grave stones
memories n’er made to last.
Round goes the gate
in the churchyards mall
through walks the sacred
peacocks ashen white pall.
Round go the penitents
lead through the hatch
lonesome lost lifetimes
Avebury’s dispatch.
Shoulders square
Face front, do not stare
No tears, only dried eyes
Eased a sigh, one final goodbye
Carry and image of mystic
A day after another
Without you is incomplete
Shadows blend in with your reflection
Polished to perfection
The pall bearer
Palms up, raise you to the skies
Shoulders square
Wisdom of an older pair
Faced front
Left foot, right foot, up those stairs
No tears on dyed dry eyes
An image similiar to mystic
Bare the weight down this darkened isle
Past the first bench
Now lay me a peace
As an ignorant stench
You are my pall bearer