THE CELLAR DOOR (The 13th Violent Verse)

After it all falls,
falls away,
after it all falls,
falls away,
I will greet you.

The green ground is wet again in the St. Francis Forest,
it is weeping for what’s taken place,
and the deer look sad, like old bullfrogs
sunk in the swamps puffing their throats.

I will meet you by the cabin,
by the moss-green cellar door with the rusty handle
and we will hold one another and the bullfrogs
will bellow their melancholy.

The world’s gone mad, my dear,
and no one seems to care.
We’re happiest breathing air the color of smoke
and swilling fury like a rabid dog tethered down.
But something’s changed, the gait of man,
teeth show more than before,
as if we’re grinning beneath our howls,
happiest when our foul fists crack against innocent flesh.

Something’s changed my dear, something awful.
In our quest for compassion, our search for ourselves,
we’ve come to greet the moon like beasts
and we’ve come to crave this ill-used madness
like addicts of failure, sightless hunters of ruin.

After it all falls,
falls away.
After it all falls,
falls away,
and all this hate and foul-toothed cruelty fails,
I will greet you. Meet you there
to hold hands
at the moss-green cellar door with the rusty handle.
And together we will bellow to the bullfrog’s melancholy.
And we will fall together, limbs touching wet fingers.
I will hold you close, my love, nearer than before
and I’ll be affectionate when I brush your golden hair.
Don’t be afraid!
I will greet you!
I will show you the beautiful things!
The deer will no longer look sad, the world
shall no more it’s howling, the air will smile
and no one will seem to care!

© 2009 mrp/thepoetryman