Thou Strong, Stern Death
I came to rest beside a placid lake I'd run all night, and then I had to stop At daybreak, when my strength had given out Wearily down to my knees I sank Fear crippled me and darkness I foresaw Yet faint I was, too powerless to rise Alas, sick fascination forced my eyes To look into the dark, enthralling deeps There did I see a thing, a pallid face That stared at me with horrid, rictus grin Cold eyes and sneering maw, it ghastly lurked I felt it was inhuman, felt its wrath Of course I knew this beast, I knew it well It was the very one that I had fled It beckoned me and I held out my hand Lake's surface rippled once and then stood still
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026
Death sailed these waters black Ahead the sombre troops of creeping doom With plagues poised to attack And trailing fetid, morbid stench of tombs Dark omens in the fog A cuckoo's voice cut violently short The scythe of vengeance struck Deep sleep engulfed the land forevermore A lonesome bird remained Its wings all worn and cruelly broken bones Afloat, with silenced heart And songs unsung, eternally unknown Tomorrow's snow will hide And endless night embed your brief remains One day new light may well Ignite the night with mysteries arcane
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026
The venom of thought is sharper than swords One word may well destinies mould One glance or a purposeful frown may suffice For the terminal act to unfold The vile ones consider you overly vile The worthless have doubt in your worth The people entrapped in the furnace of hell Curse you deeper yet into the earth Your birth is your fault, your loyalty, sin No place in this world is your home A wanderer, thirsty, forsaken and lost This desert you're destined to roam As an anchor you fall and are left thus to hang Left to hang, void of warmth and of life Like a sun upon vacuum you'll finally set To the bosom of slow-thawing ice You are followed by clouds that blacken the sky And, before they begin to ascend Will pour down all their earnest and venomous tears As if mourning the death of a friend
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026
Entrapped, in freezing mire here I've stood Surrounded by dwarf birches, hoary reeds Now, facing down the pale and gibbous Moon I'm sinking, stiff with cold and in too deep Cruel frost splits tree-trunks Wolven howls are carried by cold air from far away The wind, it softly whispers while it prowls The gurgling mire swallows me this day Ice lays a cover onto my damp grave The snow will form a proper burial mound I only leave behind this sombre lay That moorlands sing from deep beneath the ground
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026
Soundless, all quiet they came Faster than lightning strikes Racing northwards like a plague Straight from the deeps to the skies Straight through the rock and the dirt Through the forces of life and of death Straight through the first cries of newborns And the terminal patient's last breath This is how they have remade me This is how they made me see This is how I came to see what is there Within all of them as in me
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026
One took an axe and headed into the woods His hand it slipped, the blade his leg did strike The backbone snapped beneath a falling tree It was but moss that heard his final sigh The other took a boat and went to fish But, tangled in the net, fell overboard His cries for help were lost in morning mists Alone he drowned and to the bottom sank The third one very rarely ventured out It was his task to write obituaries Tonight he broke and wrote one to himself His belt became his final festive tie
Submitted by SerpentEve — Jun 17, 2026