Ode To An Empiric Poem by Leland D'Elormie

How like the vulture is the presence of your shadow?
Circling our small village,
It rests on the innocent huddled in the clapboard hall.

How like a nightmare is the visage of your form?
Blotting out your humanness,
Scarlet orbs peer from a stark, white mask.

How like a crow is the blackness of your robe?
Flapping in putrid, rushing winds,
Over those once living, now cold with death.

How like the joke is the method you employ?
Unfeeling, you examine,
Crooked canes can heal no sores.

How like a cliff is the brim of your hat,
Lives drip from it like raindrops,
Into the ashes of the ditch you fill.

How like a monster is your reflection?
Alien to humankind,
Twisted creature! Miasmas call you friend.

How like the brother of death you are?
Prophet of his coming,
You kill what you would save and viciously.