Retribution

Note: This was written in tandem with and based on a friend’s work (you know who you are). Retribution is a three-part intertwined piece, readable as separate stanzas (do give it a go!). The underlined text is  in part I: Vengeance, the text in bold makes up part II: Justice, and the text in italics constitutes part III: Mercy. I’m still revising this entry, so do know that this is likely to have changed the next time you see it ^^

True, this blade, and bitter to the bone
Blinded by duty’s creed and bound by integrity unseeing,  
Ageless and faithless, none can hold so fast
to the scarlet core of thirst
uncaring, unfeeling and unflinching,
to the desire for another chance, hope so
unquenchable and flame-forged hatred,
the blade tempered and shaped under the influence of a conscience
chaste, placed, untouchable, beyond the thresholds of pain, and
proud enough to live ten times over;
unbreakable and unshakable, can know not beauty from brutality,
weightless as the distilled essence of innocence –
chaos unsheathed and unleashed
differentiating only black from white, that spectrum of judgement,
before the world shatters all realities with its illusions and falsehoods –
in this crimson-tainted haze, shimmering
so divine and unearthly and unholy all in the same lifetime
gathered from dreams and transparencies
in the hell-raising and heaven-shaking madness
balanced on the tip of a feather, the edge of a breath
subliminal and fleeting as whispers of autumn sunshine
of sins unfurling within sins
ragged with the frenzy of heartbeats forgotten
that fade with each newly cherished taste, scent, touch.

Drink deep, for this cup runneth over with
Impartiality, a shield immune to
Compassion has no shell, only
bloodlust unsatiable, to kill and to be killed by
the evils and wrongs of emotions, reflects
a spirit capable of absolution and commiseration within
the same blade, that same sweet
feeling, void of love and hope,
the condensed understanding of darkness,
anger, rebounding, heart’s-blood-hot and
disowning and transcending mortal boundaries
trusting that providence flickers brightly enough in this life
savage in each stroke unrelenting,
to do that which humanity forbids and refuses to acknowledge
as lodestars for the virtuous and unworthy, together
to overflow the banks and borders of thought
as anything besides a crime; detached from life and religion alike
traversing this dimension to the next,
in manic undercurrents of molten obsession, mindless
on the descent into the eye of the tempest
continually discovering the sanctuary that is concealed
and viciously eternal as the pounding veins in the depths of the world
amidst the symmetry and horror of truth
within the secret depths of each mortal soul.