A Most Horrible Fate

Must I play

The fool’s game

And tell you 

Only lies?

Must I be

Your pawn

In chess—

And me start to

Despise?

To weave a web

Most counterfeit,

To tell a spider’s

Tale . . .

To say whatever

Pleases you

Though it causes me

To ail?

To play Regan

And Goneril

Though Cordelia

Be my heart . . .

I hear that

Lies

Most honor you—

And I must do

My part!

To differ

Makes me

Traitor.

To differ

Rends me

Gone.

To speak up

Names me

Rebel.

You’d rather

I pull

Con?

What matter of man

Are you—

That this request 

You make?

I cannot call

You genuine

I must conclude

You fake.

Beauty in the Bleak: Heroes & Villains

Not all you see

Before your eyes

Matches what’s hidden

Beneath a guise.

For all the tales

Of villainy,

What it is

Isn’t what you see.

A wicked heart,

An evil fate,

A life that seems

Consumed by hate—

I think you just

Fell for the bait—

Of seeing only

Surface things . . .

Fascination with

Babbles—

And with rings.

A miracle,

A spark of light—

May yet conceal

A bit of spite.

You haven’t seen

What’s truly light.

For light illumines

All before—

Revealing treasures,

Revealing more.

You might not hear it

Knocking at your door—

In guise of simple

Woman poor.

(A ‘helpless victim,’

That’s for sure.)

But what is hidden

In her guise?

Is there spark

Within her eyes?

Far from flicker—

Endless light.

Eternal circle

Of innocence right.

She stares to deep

Within your soul;

She seeks your

Treasures—

Not control.

She longs to call

Your beauty forth—

To point a way

Unto due north.

But will you

Be fooled by

The lies?

Fail to see

Through her

Disguise?

For treasure

Worth it

You shall seek . . .

Beauty hidden

Beneath the bleak.