BUTCHERED

As the night light slinks around all the walls

Of my fortress built of loss and forfeit,

And the fragrant rain beats on my windows,

I will yearn for sleep and quiet comfort.

I scare myself so much at times like these

That my exhausted heart becomes so old

And beats with rhythms of a shattered drum

For the times that it’s been both bought and sold.

I had once hoped for a woman’s kind warmth

But there’s none left to quash my nervous sighs,

Or calm me as I dream and scream ripostes

To all their rumours and their bad-mouthed lies.

A time will come when all will be cast off

And baying crowds will slay another soul

Whose trust and faith were butchered and buried

While the good and worthy measured the hole.