The knife fell through my fingers, cold, but the blood was not,
In the shadows I had stayed, silent, waiting to be caught.
I could see, but was not there, I was watching from a heavenly lair.
As like a sleepwalker, I had walked, trying not to sway.
A thief I had been until October’s last day,
Intending to steal, I had to choose-my life, or his.
That night on Hallows Eve, I became a murderer.

Now, I’m holding iron bars, too distressed to shout.
I regret taking a life, but it was the lone way out.
By the cause of my hand, Life did withdraw, but not by sword or saw-
A knife I used, the weapon of choice for a crook-
But also my instrument to take the life I took
To kill was never my dream, but now it’s my nightmare.
I had never been faced with such a choice, but still I chose.

The slums of the city had been my home all my life,
Now this penitentiary place reforms my knife,
Nor do I intend to take it back, but would leave it in this shack.
In this cell, I await the gallows to release me,
This heart in my chest is now colder the an arctic sea
I did not mean to murder, but it happened nonetheless.
I will look down on them-but from the tree without leaves.

I see it now, looking through the cold iron bars.
While, missing the comfort, I yearn for the roar of cars.
If the Raven Goddess gets her way, I’ll swing on one terrible day.
The Morrigan sees and mocks me through her eye of rope,
As I rot in my chamber, other life still can hope.
I could only taint it, frail as hope already is.
Life goes on without me, which is doubtlessly for the best.





All the workers here never show an expressive face,
It’s as if all their life, their heart has never had a race.
In here, it is a reign of silence-a whisper would not find hindrance.
A whisper makes an echo; an echo makes a roar;
That roar can form a shrill cacophony by the seashore.
When life is at its worst, then better seems like heaven,
If it is the only sound, it is but a part of life.

I am one of the few that quietly fall to sleep,
Other convicts let escape moans that they forgot to keep.
Those resonances were like thunder in these hollow expanses.
Their crimes form phantoms that do not waver from their stares.
Their misdeeds led them to these dismal and foreign lairs-
These desolate realms of locked doors and barred windows
This is an ocean of tragedy and suffering.

The light of hope finally came to my eyes one eve,
It was a day of no clouds and no birds left to thieve.
I flopped on my bed for a nap when, on my nose, I felt a tap.
Eyes open, I sighted flakes of mortar falling on me.
The source of the bizarre rain was a brick coming free.
The light bulb flicked on as lightning struck-a veiled blessing.
The bizarre rain was the key to solving my dilemma.

From the seed in my mind grew my perpetual purpose
From dusk till dawn I worked ceaselessly till I feared Death’s kiss
When finally from its burrow it slipped, the beat of my heart skipped
The lick of breeze was ambrosia to my starved lungs,
It cleared my mind as if it had been full of barrel bungs,
It was revitalization to my strength of mind,
My determination is a spear against the prison


After seven bricks, the gap is wide enough to fit me,
Hard it was to conceal my work so the guard wouldn’t see
The bricks I replace, hoping the deceit wouldn’t be found in my face.
Long it took, but success was worth the many hardships
The night I picked, a storm came in from wrecking sea-ships.
Sky lit with bolts of lightning, thunder growling at the earth
Bless that thunderstorm for its vociferous wrath.

The taste of heaven is freedom, the wonder of life,
This revelation would have caused me to shun any knife.
The rain kissed my face, speeding down it as if to hasten a race,
The scent of damp forest glades touched my nose like a friend.
As the sky cleared and the bright sun came around the bend,
The deer lifted their dozing heads and eyes blinked in earthy dens.
The images of long-gone memories rose to my mind

Through the woods I walk, spellbound by the towering trees,
Their vast and terrible majesty, has me at my knees
To this land I came aided by rain, to find me in this strange domain,
I search for shelter and reprieve from the lethal Searchers
Their howls pierce the silence as if they were working butchers.
The tree-trunks flash past, my breath coming in ragged gasps,
The keening bays are coming nearer and my hopes failing.

The forest suddenly thins, giving way to grassland,
Ahead is a shadow, wide, dark and edged with sand
The darkness lengthened and shadowed, far below an unknown liquid flowed.
I passed the edge and fell unheeded by branch or cleft.
They peered over the edge and, seeing nothing, left.
I, however, was swimming to the bank of a deep, cool stream.
They thought me dead, so I survived to live awhile longer.