Author Information
Secondhand
She stared blankly
then she fell
stepping into a familiar hell
as her heart failed to beat.
You cannot have me she said
as she gave it all away.
To put it mildly, she fled
from the martyr and the pain.
It's a tragedy, he said
oh such a shame
that you were left unclaimed.
Plundered by the swords of others
before I even knew your name.
She took him back to where it all began
to the lonely bed, moonlight across its' frame.
Blankets and pillows discarded for the cold.
Dying flowers left for the mold.
Let's leave it here, in this wasted land
so that you may never know the bitter wind,
the look in my eyes as the fire grows dim.
I'm sorry I have nothing left to offer
as the vultures have stripped my corpse of all its' life.
The thieves left these dripping wrists
with the slit of their knives
Shock Value
To shock a poet you have to go farther. Macabre writing is a genre and like Poe emotionally leaves the reader gasping. Mostly, not so here, because of the rhymes (a happy sing-song quality is inserted). Still, it has merit as a suicide note. The last two lines are exceptional poetry! :D
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Reread - the story is macabre enough and mysterious and appropo for a life left and lost. Shock was not the goal, melancholy was the outcome. slc