Dead Man Beat

He laid still, hair aflutter

The only sign of life, his eyes aglow;

The fear of death, dark and bitter

Was a veil that shrouded his morose face

Many a pebble had rolled down the slopes

Of the very mountains he had once furrowed

The same flowers, the familiar faces,

All had passed; flown around

Circumventing him and what was theirs

The haze was clearing, the mists tearing

And there they stood out in the clearing

All of them, all that he had ever cared for

Hark away! She was shouting, all of eighty one

Run! they’re all dead and you are the one

‘If they ever meant anything

Revenge shall be thine’, he dreamt that night

And thus started the journey

Of a million war and fight

The first kill is the most difficult they say,

For it’s the psychosis, the belief in virtue

That stops the trigger

Beyond which it’s only a matter of time

Today, as he lay numb,

For, the amphetamines were working

All the murders, the killings started seeping

Mutilation, rape, maiming perdition,

The horrors of his crimes had come a full circle

Streaming snapshots of life

All the women he had widowed, girl, mother, wife

And a few good men too…

Damnation had arrived, a marksman who seldom missed,

Like father, like son, hell

‘Twas the same stolen gun