As the pale moon hides itself behind the clouds
I awake and stretch my aching limbs
I stand to see where I am
but the night hinders my vision
I need the blackness
it's become like a shield
against the old memories
threatening to return
I hear a scorpion scuttling nearby
it sees me either as food or a threat
as I sense it's tail rising to strike
then I feel it sting me twice
The pain erupts inside my skin
it flashes through my mind
my body hits the ground
crushing my killer
its sting stuck in my chest
I need no doctor to say I'm dead
my body shakes violently
I already know the truth
as I breathe my last breath
then the darkness takes over
Beautiful poem. How one imagines death is brought out here so eloquently. It also makes me wonder if it matters how we imagine death....would it really have an impact on that actual moment...... in Eastern religions we are taught to imagine that moment in meditation. I am sure other religions teach that too though I don’t know for sure. Good to read your poem after a long time. Congratulations.
Congratulations on your posting in this category. This poem enfolds in darkness until there is no more. Imaginative.++10
I need no doctor to say I'm dead my body shakes violently I already know the truth as I breathe my last breath...death and the darkness. for a man of faith, death leads to light, eternal and never ending light although at the moment of death the experience may be darkness as you wrote dear poet. thank u. tony
Poisons darkness touches soul as if lay on the stinging-nettle; Numb and dumb; deaf and lame paralyzed eyesight; jaundiced glittering! darkness of stigma hugs fairly! nothing else- a nightmare or accidental death! lovely written...10++
Well written poem, quite provoking, enjoyed the read, thank you for sharing. Scary to imagine such a painful death yet in this poem, to me, the sting feels like an escape from the threatening sting of old memories..
'I need the blackness it's become like a shield against the old memories threatening to return' - these lines appear very appealing to me. You have thought of death, and translated your thoughts into poetry so beautifully! Congratulations, John Westlake, for being chosen the 'Poet of the Day'!
Well thought out and nicely penned with insight. Thanks for sharing John.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I really liked your poem and the way it talks about something so bleak in such a well crafted manner. What I felt that the poem is much of a metaphor for some kind of an epiphany. It is almost as if the speaket overlooked the 'truth'/problems until they came to bite the speaker like a scorpion. Maybe I read too much into the poem. Either ways congrats on being the poet of the day: -)