The Herald: Parts I-V

I: The Herald Archangelo embarked in a condition of control Ordained the vain front runner on the footpath to his goal Of sovereign authority, his order bore the name A package to deliver and a warning to proclaim He'd been adhering to the line amounting to his norm When of a vital matter did a fleeing girl inform Whose father was a locksmith and the target of a sack That left her with an item that the King expected back A traitor to the royal court, the Duke of Pitch had struck To bring affairs-of-state's delay as his men ran amuck Without the precious envelope that held the royal seal The king could not his might invoke to make the bandit kneel The herald was convinced by her and let himself supplant To navigate through areas a child likely can't Allowing her sufficient leave for family's concern As he alone attended to the property's return Assured by the position of the low, traversing sun He sought the shortest path across the lands the Duke had won The wear of cruel dictatorship was in its early stage A shadow closing in as from the turning of a page By evening, he found refuge in a bleak and cheerless inn Whose keeper seemed to welcome with a condescending grin The serpent that awaited underneath his slender bed Had fangs that sprayed a venom strong enough to leave him dead He managed to contain it by his blanket's timely throw And out the exit least surveyed, proceeded, free to go For sleeping quarters he would have to settle for a glade And let the evening sky extend its drowse inducing shade He drifted to oblivion, surrendering to need And feeling only temporarily, of danger, freed Whatever hurdles lay across his solitary flight Would have to wait at least until the passing of the night II: The Posse A cast of sordid characters converged in hot pursuit The royal stamp presented an attractive piece of loot Three predators intent on intercepting the stray scout Imagined what he'd look like with his hide turned inside out They traveled through the shadows with superior finesse Sufficiently provisioned and assured of their success United by a common and carnivorous desire But each too centred on the self to totally conspire Untypical was Antipath of men who worked for Pitch Instead of breaking out of jail, he crawled out of a ditch He lined the road behind him with the pockmarks of his pike As with the hunted courier, he tried to think alike The product of invasion's most notorious affairs He'd been discovered by the bears and raised as one of theirs They taught him how to wrestle and to hollow out a hole Among the civilized, he sunk to fill the lowest role His fellow fiend, de Bauch, would from another corner stalk The witnesses against him were too terrified to talk His fervency for violence propelled him well along Inspired by the kill to come, he broke into a song Towards the lost and frightened girls, he was no longer led In favour of a victim with a bounty on his head To sate his mad, sadistic thirst, he'd crucify and maim Dismissing every screaming plea with neither grief nor shame Young Malady, their trailing mate, kept her beguiling face Sagaciously reserved for the most advantageous place With simpering magnificence, she rounded out the crew From whom the wise Archangelo intensively withdrew Fixated on their roving prize, towards his camp they went With Antipath the first to find it, following the scent The dawn was just upon him and the smoke still in the air The wild paths his prey had walked would show their signs of wear III: The Savages A feeling of foreboding kept the messenger away From deep uncharted regions where the savages would stay Beyond the mounted skulls that marked the bounds of their domain Lay knowledge that Archangelo had no wish to obtain A sportsman, talkative and proud, from round a hill, emerged And joined him where the currents, to the outermost, diverged From there the two would separate, the sportsman cutting through Ancestral grounds the more informed declined to cross into A hail of arrows fell upon the reckless pioneer Who'd shunned the threat his cautious friend had proven right to fear His anguished cry went out to join the jackal's distant call And keen was the survivor to avoid his own downfall Behind him lumbered Antipath, with sense of smell acute Whose mastery of the outdoors was never in dispute Determined to collect on a superlative reward He closed in on the runner and his vigour was restored The foliage was flattened by his overwhelming weight A force he would employ to overcome and dominate The duke would make him general and put him in command His grunt would be, among the men, the word to understand From dark and unfamiliar wood, the danger was revealed When suddenly was needed the protection of his shield He stumbled backwards into an immobilizing trap Observed by his own target from a reasonable gap Archangelo descended from the branch where he had hid Delighted to be fully, of the lurking menace, rid Abandoning the stranded brute to, from a swarm, defend He left for new surroundings on which he could more depend Throughout a lonely hamlet, he could only find a stall To stretch out and recover in before the night would fall As in the grim horizon grew a dark, malignant blotch Distinctively embodied by the person of de Bauch IV: The Hounds The moon provided ample means to catch the mundane track The fugitive had taken to accommodate his back De Bauch would wait until the light extinguished on the sill Before advancing to the site elected for the kill He found the sleeper on the floor and held his urge in check Though he stood only inches from his prostrate victim's neck With failure now impossible, he let his visions go Inventing with his twisted mind, a frenzied horror show The prisoner was fancied as he'd be when he was thrown Upon the rack, whose stress bore down on ligament and bone And wore the sorry look that he'd for sympathy implore As rotaries would grind to make him suffer more and more While starving to a skeleton, he'd have to bake the bread To cap the tasty dishes that his torturer was fed In time, he'd have to lie inside his captor's spiked bed frame And scream out to the pushing down of lovers at their game The killer watched the fabric breathe, indulging in his dream With time to let the darkness pass to daybreak's gentle beam At last, he yanked the weave that warmed his unsuspecting toy Which was not, the uncovered hound, intended to annoy The dog exposed incisors to repel the barging guest A grown man was believable for its mouth to ingest It poked its head out quick enough to grab de Bauch's sleeve A tug against the flailing arm, of weapon, would relieve De Bauch went reeling, helmet striking on the kennel bell And landed in the bloody trough for hungry hounds to smell Inside a fort of solid hay, Archangelo awoke The barking now reminding him of how he'd lost his cloak Through exit to an open field, he fled the noisy sound As the intruder's cries for help, in canine fury, drowned A measure of tranquility was in the coming dawn But by the will of Malady, it would again be gone V: The Abbey With vestibule connected to the Brothers of the Son The Daughters of the Lord were, by a rugged matron, run Matilda was her given name, but seldom was it used For Mother held authority, from which none were excused The abbey offered comfort for the pilgrims on the road And one was soon to pass through, with a tantalizing load Ahead of him, did Malady, pretending to be good Say Mary was her Christian name and honour vows she would The Mother knew she couldn't trust the whimsical recruit But someone had to serve the meals and organize the fruit So Malady donned draping robes and occupied the post A testament to purity she would become almost She liked it best to have her men, to her location, drawn And for her affectations, it was fun to see them fawn With paralyzing poison, she would coat her well honed nails Whose deathblow followed just the flaking of a few loose scales Her first sight of Archangelo, secure within her shawl Confirmed her planning had been good and that the man was tall She peeled off her disguise and put her body on display To tease a silly smile from the one that she would slay Archangelo was taken by the woman's dainty charm And proved to be unusually easy to disarm She could have struck at any time but wanted first to see The eyes of love's devotion from her sacrifice to be She slinked atop his eager lap and swung to face his grin And with her poisoned fingertips, was aiming for his chin When by the shoulders, she was seized, her action at an end As Mother undertook to, the delinquent, apprehend The imp was locked inside a cell, protesting in despair And ordered to redeem her dues in penitence and prayer While the confounded wayfarer was sternly told to leave Which cut his evening short of what he thought it might achieve (to be continued)
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© 2007, 2016. Verses by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.