I sat one day, outside my home,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quite laissez faire and all alone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When all-a-sudden, something here<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inevitable did appear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A figure of impressive height,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within a cape be-weaved of night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who wore a cap of stark, thin, hair<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And locked me in its soulless stare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI dare\u201d, they wheezed through cracking teeth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI dare\u201d, repeated low beneath<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their glare that also uttered there<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No other thing but this, \u201cI dare\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI dare thee, low, shambolic thing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To wage thy life, thy mortal cling,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against my own, that I\u2019ve lived long,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In besting me but with a song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If thee sing well, as I shall judge,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I\u2019ll retire and hold no grudge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if ye fail, as rule requires,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, by my hand, your life expires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that, their arm, all bone and shade,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drew out a long and sorrowed blade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stranger grinned, which tore the skin<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That what remained was rictus grin,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And such a fear it struck in me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That lost was my ability<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To even breath, less think to sing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before this deathly, wicked thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But from somewhere, as to condemn,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My desperate plea was heard by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They must have plucked words from my thought,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For from my lips I uttered naught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My quiet prayer, my hushed despair,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No louder still than a nightmare,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beseeched their hallowed eminence<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To pity me through my laments<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And choose to task some other thing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For I – forgive me – cannot sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their laugh was dry and joyless. \u201cThence,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thy death draws with expedience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in a manner well-rehearsed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In bloody, maleficent thirst,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They raised the curs\u00e8d final blade<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To punish for this game unplayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It fell and cut a lethal arc,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But halted, not to meet its mark,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As from my lungs did so expel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A shout with all the might of hell;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My soul so near its sudden death<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Became my bellowed endless breath,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And carried from my pounding chest<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My answer to their wicked test,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI sing, foul wretch, for I shall live!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My soul to take, I shall not give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sing not with a dulcet tongue,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nor with a note a second rung,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sing no tune or melody,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But my response is all of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sing not with my voice, though true<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sing for life in what I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I greet each day and celebrate<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The circumstances of my fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve cried for sunsets, sighed for dawns,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve plunged through oceans, lay in thorns,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve battled fear and rolled with beasts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve nuzzled babes, and guzzled feasts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve loved with passion far exceeding<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any flame or angel bleeding<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throng, and lived each moment long,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what I\u2019ve done, that is my song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stranger did not move a sleeve,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until the verdict they did breathe,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThy answer spares thee. Yet I\u2019ll pass,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But sands fall through my hourglass,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And time will age thee before long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shall return to judge thy song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then all was hush, and they were gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I sat one day, outside my home, Quite laissez faire and all alone, When all-a-sudden, something here Inevitable did appear: A figure of impressive height, Within a cape be-weaved of night, Who wore a cap of stark, thin, hair And locked me in its soulless stare. \u201cI dare\u201d, they wheezed through cracking teeth, \u201cI dare\u201d,