Work Text:
John Doe
From the veil, birthed, I was blind
Lost - from night to night - unkind
Ash or clay that clad my heart
I did not know, the end from start
Spurned the light from darkest yoke
My fear, my grief, the pyre did stoke
Bereft, stripped of tongues and teeth
In linen, sleep, your dreams did wreath
I know I am cruel, unjust, and vile
Of your sight, reason for a dim smile
But you do not know how it truly felt
Cut by angles and bones, in frailty dwelt
Helpless - bound! - my only grace
Gentleness, for none’s sake, in a place
Where I was cast adrift, ashore, and lost
Like coins, of which I counted the cost
It did not have a body to call its own
Nor a name or grave, stood once alone
Nevertheless, I lay upon stone a lily sole
Against it all - a John Doe, with a living soul
The Bitterest Winter
Amidst the frightful lay of dark
I stumble lost, for a voice to hark
My breath caught upon the winds
Parched and dry, my hope rescinds
The baying of wolves heed my steps
Oh heard, disavowed, pitied perhaps
Bloodied tracks as cold as tears
The frozen lake, my bones did pierce
A covenant - a belly full of meat
Cawed the crows, the lambs to bleat
Grey as slate, patter’d a soundless rain
The forlorn firs flutter, a soul to feign
Amidst the cruel rise of light
I stumble lost, a shade of night
My knees bowed, bloody, and bent
Yet stood tall and bitter to the descent
Yellow Lament
Glittered and stained anew
Vivid, violent, vicious hue
Past the sun, a slyer shirk
Lit aglow the tiles that lurk
Behold the pews stretched beyond
The bluebell sky, bruised, and awned
Rose the incense, sweet and sickled
Fount blessed, tapered and trickled
A pallid mask - so frightful and true
Bound the half and whole, I and you
For in the mirror cast, the blackest lake
Ripples bleak and tarred, fit to break
Then whose cry pierced the dusk?
The blighted solitude, a lifeless husk
Starlight spun and hewn, but I knew not
The crown I chased, the love I sought
I look into glass, at last divine and foul
Entranced at the facade’s wretched scowl
Yet beyond my skin - my flesh and bone
I am only ever parchment, cut and sewn
Epithet
Once, in my grief, it was told
That life was loss, and I alone
The tides of wind, bitter and cold
The only comfort to be known
To my soul, I say this too shall pass
And remember it engraved upon a light
That neither time nor wish, only memory
Shall remember the dead through eternity