adamdaniel

The Pall of Famine

With the rippling clouds above me,
And the desert sands in white,
With the moon ascending madly,
Through the melancholic night.

With the wolves so keenly thronging,
With their shadows blackly cast,
Such a fervour for belonging,
In a wasteland spreading vast.

All the cries a bitter chorus,
All the huffing breaths a curse,
Such a blackness set before us,
In a hellscape getting worse.

All the crows a vicious murder,
Set in tumult in the sky,
And myself a humble herder,
With a panic in mine eye.

For the pall of famine held us,
In a turbulence of pain,
Like a swinging axe had felled us,
And we’d never rise again.

Every withered husk unsightly,
Every perished plant a loss,
Even with our efforts sprightly,
Every harvest turned to dross.

Every crop and every valley,
In a spiralling demise,
Such a fell and lightless alley,
Under cataclysmic skies.

I raised up a hand while praying,
To the God that made the land,
With the wolves so brashly baying,
To their fallen fatherland.

And I called the higher powers,
And I chanted holy names,
In those godforsaken hours,
In a land the devil claims.

And I whispered holy passion,
And I roused angelic hosts,
With the heaven covered ashen,
Like a firmament of ghosts.

Prithee free our destitution!
And deliver us of fear!
Put away thy retribution!
And inclemency austere!

Give us verdancy in brightness!
All the fecund means to grow,
Give us levity and lightness,
And thy beatitude bestow.

And the silence was abysmal,
And the answer was but wind,
In this curse so cataclysmal,
In our destinies chagrined.

And the howling aether scorned us,
And the sky was dead of cheer,
Every prophet that had warned us,
Of our fortunes stricken drear.

And the wolves continued baying,
With the crows annoucing doom,
In a protest undelaying,
In an ambience of gloom.

And I dropped my hand aside me,
And I stared the blackness down,
For I’ll live, though gods defied me,
And I’ll never sink to drown.

I will brace against the sorrow,
And I’ll summon all my herd,
Roving through the dread tomorrow,
With a braveness undeterred…