"My Lady, My Lady"

Death patiently awaits, cloak spread wide--

Wider than jaws

To swallow me whole.

Bedsheets wrinkle under my claws,

Tattered feathers litter the floor.

Who is to say when the end is nigh?

Who decides that enough draws near?

Time carries a steady melody with every strike of twelve.

My lady, my lady--

The dragon awaits!

To keep tethered feelings sunken and low,

A breath of fire to keep thee warm.

Flesh merely pales in its painstaking flight

Now is the time to vanquish the beast!

Turn your dagger inward--

Toward that unholy muscle--

Rotting lies and broken gears and spoiled silk

Now fills my lady’s eyes.

Go softly into that great flower bed,

Slip your head onto the rose’s breast--

Thorns may prick your pretty lips,

But surely this is not justice?

A lullaby I now sing to you, my lady,

For those lonely nights among the dead,

A crown of scales fit for one such as my lady

Gold shall spill from your mouth like those excuses so long ago.

And yet I shall stay,

For you are my lady,

Just as I am Me,

And I shall keep watch over you

As you forbad me.

Oh just like a child!

I remember how you waddles, new to this place,

As your clumsy nails caught a fly

To taste its wings.

As my lady’s nectar ran down her chin,

You gazed upon me,

“Savage beast--

Away from me!”

Whether directed at you or I,

Only the embers could know.

As the bone pellets fell from your throat,

The heat glistened in your eyes,

And once again I was reminded of you terrible beauty--

Of blood and predator.

Then you caught my stare and smiled

And then i knew,

My lady could never be satisfied.

Yet there we lay--

I in the starlight, and

You in your bed,

Each so painstakingly built by teeth

And paid in blood.

My, my,

I never thought it would end this way,

But the exalted shall be humbled,

And the rest of us

Profit in their spoils.

A good piece of iron was destroyed per

Your words and

Poison sang from your lips--

Those pretty, pretty lips--

Yet the acid only burned those around you.

Friends were always so hard to come by,

Just why couldn’t you be mine?