Haunted
I felt it – stirring, spontaneous repulsion,
the darkness
Recovering from the steel black holes
Eyes intent on raping the soul
Ravishing the vulnerable,
Violating the hope, the wonder.
He was younger than me,
with teeth black from decay – black
Like the mountain dirt, rich and pitch-black
He looked like the stark naked
Dread that came from the moment
When his eyes met mine
And I felt the urge to look away –
Refusing penetration, even from those blue iris’
Where there were shadows betraying
his deadly gaze, the hue of fatality
Slain by a feeling that could not feel, cruelty
The echo of drug dazed, emotionless pupils
In the color of death, gloom
Breaking through every temptation,
Torturing hope with the hiss of desperation
Misery, bleak and futile truths
Silencing even the memory of beauty,
The tranquility like a dream, too far away
To ever break through the bleak
That erases the chance of recovery with desolation
He was young but he was undone
By Xanax and Percocet – pills poured
From emptiness, draining every
Desire from the feelings that still lived –
Until his mind chiseled out an urge
That meant he would become the killer
Who defeated my friend with his dark
evil, hands of steel – hard hearted blows
To the skull who had been his only hope
For someone who might have shown
Love – love that was refunded
The earth thrown over him, editing
His part from the stage we call earth,
The movie of a life – ended
Before the scene that told us
This would be the true story, a thriller,
A horror film that could sink its fangs
Through the dreams that fled…
When this nightmare bled through the stars,
Inklings of what must have been –
My friend’s last thoughts, last hopes, last prayers.
It wouldn’t thrill – in any way, but bring so many tears –
This killing of someone that only knew
The music played by hope, faith and truth…
The music that still plays in those he knew best,
despite the news that drew so many tears,
we all knew we’d been blessed to know him –
Even though his song has ended and the other – his life
Is just beginning in prison where he is prevented
From destroying another heart, another life
With his mindless murdering impulses, his
Addictions and compulsions for wickedness…
Despite him, there is the memory of one gone on
To the freedom of eternal life, forever alive
In the sweetest paradise –
In tears, my heart remembers
The way I felt then
Before he killed my friend, before
There was the darkest truth to face,
The way I felt – was that intuition
And if it was, why – oh, why….
Couldn’t I have stopped the murder
That would silence the heart I knew –
The friend who was murdered by a sin
More foul than any I’ve been near,
A sin like the blackest nasty, ruthlessness…
While I cry – for the death of the one so kind,
Haunted by a love that still smiles within…
This brutal enemy knows the lonely of a cell
Where I hope he will find the empathy that might
Have controlled his blows, the final wallops –
Against the skull of a mind who reflected real hope!
Writing Challenge -H Words - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
Word 9. Haunted
February 26, 2023
Copyright ©
Regina Mcintosh
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