XV

I'm king now

this was a kingdom once
living and ruled
sent men to die in war
made peasants grow the gruel
to feed the war machine
and bury bodies

this was a keep once
kept warm the lords and ladies
kept out the rabble
it's rubble now
troubled by usurpers and crown-thiefs
and the great malady
that wiped out the world

rest well, m'lord and m'lady
the danse macabre dances with us all
royal blood served you no better
than the dirt-veined serfs
who carried your body out on a tide
of unsaddened, unwashed faces

how comfortably do you live now
in the afterlife?
what check did Charon cash
after ferrying you across the river
where souls clash

I wonder
if there's such a toll to enter Ostrapalis?
a tax of gold, or stories told
blood and men murdered
gruel grown
and served
what cost to clear the mind?

I'm in the throne room now
take the throne and ponder
whether I should plunder
or continue to wander
away

I'm king now
I keep an empty, meandering court

XIV

Possessions don't mean much to me
nothing at all, anymore, in fact
there was a time when I was always wanting
yearning
coveting
what the next man had
a woman, a finer meal, a better horse

but now I can't seem to be bothered
now that I've left it all behind
I can't seem to remember
why it all meant so very much

will healing mean filling up my life with
wants again
swarming over everything
like insects over a piece of rotted fruit
always hungering
am I going to cure myself
or be all the more damned?