The Pledge Poem by Eric Eberhard

Today I pledge fealty
Today I offer this treat
Today I make a promise
To shun lust and deceit

These days I've done wrong
Are always haunting me
Plucked hearts with bloody tong
Made a mountain called misery

My eyes are wide
And ironically clear
And my wits are sharp
And my ears can hear

I have no lids or lashes
For which to play blind
And I cannot fall to sleep
To shutoff my mind

To block out the sound
Of ones I've betrayed
So many hearts on the mound
They saw it but stayed

Now there's a hole
Behind their left breast
Dug by an eloquent mole
Like a dastardly crest

Performed with deft hands
It's a painful excision
With no anesthetic
Though it was not my decision

I watch as if from one way glass
With two selves on each side
One of us a malignant mass
The other wills to die

Two souls to these eyes
The one with love no one sees
Because I am hidden so well
And to the door are no keys

But today I peer out
From the bars on my door
But with no mouth I can't shout
So I'll write it from the core

To thee I raise my right hand
Holding my head up straight
With my blood as the ink
And the pen as the gate

The tip to my heart
I write this requiem song
Now may the healing start
Until all your pain is gone

I pledge myself to solitude
My ways will hurt no more
This poem as a measure for magnitude
Will be my last disturbing score