Error 420
One Thousand Club
(I wrote this like two years ago. In the interest of not toeing unfairness, It's just a submission for fun [in case somebody is still feeling spooky in November]. Unless it scores better than my original submission, in which case this is my actual submission.)
What fools the curses of love can sow in mortal men, and what ghosts they make in those with none.
How foolish could I have been? So distraught, so alone,
I never thought to see my beloved Karen again
so I left her to die?
She fell ill so many years ago, what hopeful nights
I wasted at her side?
Nights where I prayed in good will she would not perish?
Endless days wasted trying to ward off the icy hands
with but the light of a candle?
Oh how I loved her so
and so was blinded by holy ignorance
that any deity would take pity on my soul.
Oh, my darling sister, why did I turn you from the light, why did I allow you to succumb to the great phantasm?
I was her sole survivor, she left the pittance she had to me in her will.
She'd written that will with her last words when she knew the end was near.
I was the one to see her go.
She lay dead in my arms, and in the casket she was lowered in I buried alone.
I was cold, and defeated, and I knew that love was a lie,
an illusion, to distract from the reality that is only death.
I paid no attention to hope. I was dead, too.
This is why I ignored the silent stirrings
in her casket
as I put it into the earth.
I was alone. She had left. Soon I would die as well.
Oh, what a fool! To rid my still-beating heart a chance at life!
I spent more nights
standing by the bed she passed in. Each time hurt more and more
until I'd realized that I had killed my young sister!
I'd buried her under five feet for what? Sadness?
I had hope. I had love, because I was afraid
of death.
I wouldn't let death defeat me.
I opened the very ground up to revive my beloved.
I held her soft skin to my cheek.
Oh dearest sister, you're so cold and dirty! I'm so sorry.
I brought her to sleep in my own warm bed and I held her close to me. Her breath was so faint
I couldn't even feel it. Oh what a fool I'd been!
In the morning I had understood the atrocity I had accomplished.
I was a monster. A monster!
But as I felt her cold hands against mine, I'd finally understood love.
What fools the curses of love can sow in mortal men, and what ghosts they make in those with none.
How foolish could I have been? So distraught, so alone,
I never thought to see my beloved Karen again
so I left her to die?
She fell ill so many years ago, what hopeful nights
I wasted at her side?
Nights where I prayed in good will she would not perish?
Endless days wasted trying to ward off the icy hands
with but the light of a candle?
Oh how I loved her so
and so was blinded by holy ignorance
that any deity would take pity on my soul.
Oh, my darling sister, why did I turn you from the light, why did I allow you to succumb to the great phantasm?
I was her sole survivor, she left the pittance she had to me in her will.
She'd written that will with her last words when she knew the end was near.
I was the one to see her go.
She lay dead in my arms, and in the casket she was lowered in I buried alone.
I was cold, and defeated, and I knew that love was a lie,
an illusion, to distract from the reality that is only death.
I paid no attention to hope. I was dead, too.
This is why I ignored the silent stirrings
in her casket
as I put it into the earth.
I was alone. She had left. Soon I would die as well.
Oh, what a fool! To rid my still-beating heart a chance at life!
I spent more nights
standing by the bed she passed in. Each time hurt more and more
until I'd realized that I had killed my young sister!
I'd buried her under five feet for what? Sadness?
I had hope. I had love, because I was afraid
of death.
I wouldn't let death defeat me.
I opened the very ground up to revive my beloved.
I held her soft skin to my cheek.
Oh dearest sister, you're so cold and dirty! I'm so sorry.
I brought her to sleep in my own warm bed and I held her close to me. Her breath was so faint
I couldn't even feel it. Oh what a fool I'd been!
In the morning I had understood the atrocity I had accomplished.
I was a monster. A monster!
But as I felt her cold hands against mine, I'd finally understood love.
