The Last Tree

The Northern Wind over Glacier Park, Carries the musk of the elken rut: An ammonia stench, thick with lust, The scent of battle, death and conquest. A lone pair of antlers crests above the harem, Thirty cows drinking at a Logan Pass creek. The bull elk spots shifting light between the trees Another young challenger to his throne. From the wood, a bugled shriek The females freeze, lift their heads and stare A rival bursts from the brush, And charges for the leader of the pack. Skulls collide Punctured hide Beaten pride Nature's guide is war Fight to the death. Panting and stumbling Resolve is crumbling Bloodlines: their wager Their lives in danger One Final Charge To end it all Elk clash, the young buck Swifter, his horn stuck Through his elder's eye. Antlers like lances Entwined, he dances With the cadaver Of his enemy.

Submitted by Warbringer — Apr 26, 2025

"To Hell with Boston's urban sprawl," Said I to you, dear wife, "We'll hitch our wagon to the Western call, Give the children a better life. For what's now sand, With these hands, Will become A garden." The Sodom of the east behind us, Rain will follow the plow. Heaven smiles upon us, For rain follows the plow. I worked that land with all my worth. 'Exposed the soil to the sky. The fields simply would not birth Our crops of wheat and rye. Then I'd doubt That the drought Would ever cede To showers. Government deception That rain would follow the plow May God shine grace upon us So rain may follow the plow. Manifest Destiny: The railroad's Tyrany. Cholera, A child's loss, Husbandmen On the cross. The American dream has died. Now I kneel before your grave, Monument to my mistakes. The soil that I toiled Never gave, but now it takes. And I pray Every day That with this gun I'll join you. No mana from the heavens No rain to follow the plow This desert masks no Eden No rain followed the plow.

Submitted by Corpse Grinder — Apr 26, 2025

When dogs lick the corpses Of the soldiers who fell, Stomped by the Trojan horses The four horsemen ride to hell, When town criers shout nonsense And generals shoot the sand, When kings hide behind pretense So the blood keeps off their hand… You ignore the carnage, Living just because you spawned. Saying nothing takes no courage: Your inaction hangs the wronged. Conception Deception Recession Ride. When dead gods roll back boulders To crush human intellect, From patriotic shoulders Electing martial architects, When taxation starves the poor To feed kakistocracy, When a nation forces war To spread false democracy. You steal a blind man's eyes To eclipse a moon charred red. In the dark you trust the lies Because you fear the dead. Conception Deception Damnation Ride. The blind all watch you riding On those Trojan horses too. The truth is not worth hiding: You are Death, and Death is you. When bushes burn with napalm And they only chose to say "The storm's before the calm, Just shut your eyes and pray," When books deem some the chosen And all others marked for death, When sand dune suns have frozen And the zephyr lost its breath… You call your Trojan horse And ride into the dim. Its hooves know no remorse, The world crumbles at its whim. Conception Deception Redemption Ride.

Submitted by VladTheImpaler666 — Apr 26, 2025

In a Spanish synagogue, Two hunted brothers pray, May God shroud them in the fog, May night never turn to day, May the clergy never find them, Never torture, never burn, Never die in dungeons dim, To satisfy the worms. Two brothers, two doors: One sacrifice, As the molten steel pours, One succumbed to vice. When night wilted, withered by dawn Guardsmen broke the temple gates. The two brothers had never gone, Simply kneeled and welcomed Fate. In prisons built on Christian zeal, Both brothers were strapped to racks, With each rotation of a wheel, Ropes would pull apart their backs. Priests tore the nails from their skin, 'Command heretics to convert. They chose the quieter of the kin: Each wheel's turn dug a foot of dirt. When this brother snapped in half, The other begged the guards to stop: "I renounce the devil's path Christ leads to heaven's mountain top" Two brothers, two doors One sacrifice As the molten steel pours One succumbed to vice Which succumbed to vice? Which succumbed to vice?

Submitted by Warbringer — Apr 26, 2025

Man lives on bread alone. In the deserts of the East I met a wild, winged beast Drinking sand and eating stones. "You there, let me chill your bones," Said he of the porcelain grin, "Your month-long fast has gnawed you thin." Indeed the vultures thought me dead So I drank his water and ate his bread. The creature soothed starvation's sting And moved the son of man to sing The Ballad of the Beast. Salvation Salvation Starvation Starvation We walked to the city gate, Where he revealed my tragic fate To die impaled on a tree: The end my father chose for me. Temptation Temptation Temptation Atop the ancient temple's roof He claimed one leap would serve as proof. I jumped -- an angel took his bet, Caught me, and whispered "not quite yet." Snatched from Death by gilded wings, Fortune beckoned me to sing The Ballad of the Beast. At the zenith of the mount Where people are too small to count, My friend pointed to the land. "You could hold this in your hand... If only you'd shake mine." As I did, the sands of time Shrieked and cowered at my feet, The trumpet blare of Fate's defeat. Newly crowned the only king, I ordered all my pawns to sing The Ballad of the Beast As I danced upon the sea, Mermaids dying under me, As I danced upon the sea, I knew I was free. Free.

Submitted by The Void — Apr 26, 2025