THE REVENANT

By Heather Van Ness

Fear climbed inside my heart

And chewed up my chest.

When it reached my eyes it toppled over

And dampened my cheeks.

I felt you there the whole time.

Heaving, moaning, sighing.

You lifted more rocks and punched them

Into my mouth, down my throat.

I wanted to run, I did,

But the chains of a muse rattle too loudly.

Are they only silent in the carpenter’s box

Muffled by dirt and your precious flowers?

I will not see the gifts you display, for the coins on my eyes;

Heavy in the sockets, rough against the skin.

You placed them there.

Will they grant me passage to peace or simply glitter

In the dark?

Just shut the box! And paint me in death’s portrait.

I can already hear the scuff, the scratching,

As you gently place the sickle round my throat.

Cold friend, like a guillotine, we meet

As the crows scream from black clouds

And form a suffocating circle, a knowing crowd.

Know, when you hear the clock, tick, tick tick in the silence

And the creak of a door as you begin to slumber

That a revenant need not be seen

To cleave a man asunder.

#darkpoetsclub