Monsters Amongst Us Poem by Ralph Vaughan

The skull is small, precious, fragile;
It is delicate as a raven’s egg
Fallen from a nest of encircled thorns,
Now half-buried in the loamy swamp,
Far from the haunts of Man…
But in view of where in life she ran;
One hollow eye peeps playfully through the leaves and rising mist,
Slyly, coyly watchful for a mother’s skulking return;
A daughter’s toothy grin is now calcium grinning toothily,
But only to heaven’s eyes,
For angels cannot turn away.
Cannot escape the Earth’s myriad horrors,
Cannot turn deaf ears to whimpers in the night
Cannot claim the ignorance that is Man’s nature;
How they yearn for hearts of stone!
Basalt clouds vent angry scalding rain,
Flaming tears freighted with karmic ire,
Avenging angels can only rattle and scream,
Just another storm from out the much vexed Atlantic,
With fiery swords slashing, but never making any gain,
No march toward Truth, sacred or profane,
Certainly no victory pyre,
No absolution.
No consummated vengeance,
No justice all around,
No grinning girl with cotton candy dreams;
And, worse of all, not even the Mark of the Beast upon the beast
Who walks away smirking,
And drinks sparkling champagne.