Lament Of Innocence

Lament Of Innocence

Once again I awake as her shrieks abruptly shake

My senses and I am ripped from a world of dreams

Once again my heart pounds as I shudder at the sound

Of her cries as they turn from faint whispers to piercing screams

It happens every night my eyes wide with fright

As I behold my lost love's phantasmal form

Her eyes black as pitch with the crooked smile of a witch

She sways back and forth in a white dress well-worn

In life she was kind and sweeter than sangria wine

What a beauty she was to behold

Now she drags rusty chains and though her young form still remains,

Her face has waxed dreadfully old

'Twas three years ago when we took in a show

At the old district music box bijou

She was silken and fine and dressed to the nines

Her presence could do naught but please you

The players all bowed to the large, dispersing crowd

And the curtain was lowered to the floor

We walked in the rain down North Southport Lane

And we talked 'neath the steady downpour

We married that fall at The Crystal Garden Hall 

She was bathed in fine satin and lace

With our lives intertwined soon I would find

A horror that most could not face

One late Autumn night I thought that I might

Take a stroll to the park there close by

I left her in dreams 'neath the palish blue beams

And the glow of the streetlights outside

An hour flew by and as midnight drew nigh 

I made my way up the steep, winding stairs

My door had been pried, and my love how she cried

I had indeed caught the thief most unawares

I ran to my wife but found no sign of life

In her eyes as the blood poured from her chest

I fell to the floor then stumbled out the door

In pursuit of a most uninvited guest 

Only shadows remained as I struggled to gain

Some control of the vengeance that boiled

With the heavy heart which she kept I solemnly wept

For my life had been irreparably spoiled  

So here I must lie amidst my lover's shrill cries

And the sound of the chains on the floor

She points here and there, but I am left unaware

Of that which of me she does adamantly implore

But what could this be? She now speaks to me!

Her words are like whispers from within

She speaks of that eve, and with no merciful reprieve

She states that my sanity has indeed worn quite thin

'Twas I that had burst through the door and what's worse

Is that this I do not remember

'Twas her heart that I broke with one tempestuous stroke

On that cold, fateful night in November

She fixes her gaze on the rafters as she fades

Her spirit now able to sleep

With a rope I will hang for only my sins now remain 

And my heart, may the devil rightly keep

By Justin Huskey Copyright 2013