Monday, December 23, 2013

The Lady in Black

The Lady in Black
By Josh Watkins

Saw the thunder coming, but heard no rain.
Watched the rage build, but the wrath never came.
Felt like it was going to judge me, but I bore no shame.
Totally lost all sense of reality, because of this dame.

A whisper was all it took, to turn my deaf ear,
Its silenced drum could now hear the drop of a tear.
Punches came flying in from the rear,
Hot was the flame that gave my poor heart a sear.

The femme fatale was my only crutch,
Chased every beauty and such,
Some say she had stolen way too much,
But I couldn't resist her irresistible touch.

The sirens wailed and screamed,
The people scolded as I only dreamed,
One kind soul told me I was going to get creamed,
Hope was slim and love was bleak…or so it seemed.

Stood there as the hail hit my face,
Unflinching as my flesh scattered all over the place,
Wondering if when it was over there’d be even a trace,
Would I be the hero or just a forgotten disgrace?

For years the storms brewed a threatening force,
With demons leading the charge on a black horse,
I stood alone on the hellish course,
And it was love’s ache that created the source.

Fire and brimstone barred my way,
The naysayers spewed many a nay,
She will consume your very being they say,
But through hell and back is the price I’m willing to pay.

They came in angry droves and masses,
Waving their steel and firing their brasses,
The air was thicker than a lake of molasses,
Not even a fly by here it passes.

Through the gloom I saw her there,
Letting the foul wind carry her hair,
A hundred miles of hell did I dare?
Only for a she, and lady so rare.

Picked up my sword and dashed through the night,
Cutting down the cursed left and right,
Watching them fall, eyes filled with spite,
Not once did I let her out of my sight.

The fire was relentless, causing great pain,
Nearly fell to my knees from a soul driver’s chain,
How I longed for the sky to release its soothing rain,
Fearing I would burn in death’s bottomless drain.

One last devil drew his blade from its hilt,
Forged by a thousand souls of men it was built,
My poor heart was about to dry up and wilt,
At the sight of how much blood that thing had spilt.

From his nostrils poured a cloud of smoke,
Eyes bloodshot as if high on a thousand pounds of coke,
His mighty jaws moved and this he spoke,
“Death awaits you my darling little joke.”

Clutched my blade and leapt towards the sky,
Dodging fireballs as they flew on by,
Swung the steel from my right thigh,
Severing his ugly head…so the body would die.

They howled and shrieked as they were dragged below,
Never again this stranger they would know,
To some far crueler place they would go,
And all I saw was her charming glow.

Stepped out of the clouded mist,
Released the sword clenched in my fist,
Up the hill I walked holding my bruised wrist,
To see the face I could not resist.

There she stood all covered in black,
Not once had I veered from the deadly track,
Nor did I turn my gaze and look back,
I reached for the part of my heart that I lacked.

Before I could speak, her fingers held my lips tight,
She turned to me and matched my sight,
From her mouth came the word of a fragile sprite.
“This fight was not yours wrong or right.”

“I admire your courage to make it all the way through,
The hellish armies sent to destroy you,
But if you wouldn't have been blind and only knew,
There is another. I bid you adieu.”

With those cold words she vanished beyond my gaze,
Left my broken self, there in a daze,
To reach this point even the Legion had to raise,
The once known path now a thorn-marred maze.

My knees hit the earth, heart jabbed by a pin,
Clearly she didn't want this ol’ boy to win,
Returned to her true love; the world and its sin,

And left me there to ponder what could have been.



Here is the third and finale part in my three-part character series. Every once in awhile I begin playing with words and putting them in facebook statuses and deleting them until I find something I like. I started with a storm and wrote the first verse, then it all came to me like a bolt of lightning and I knew it was going to be a poem rather than a measly status update.

There are two different ways to look at this piece. The first is to take it literally. A guy has fallen for a mysterious woman and to get to her he has to fight through a literal horde of demons only to have his ploy be in vain.

Here's the hidden meaning: Both this man and this woman are caught up in dastardly things (in this case prostitution). Eventually, the guy comes to his senses and realizes he is up to his neck in sin and that he needs to get out. Yet, he has fallen in love with this woman. So to save himself and her as well, he battles through his and her spiritual demons (Pre-marital sex, prostitution, drugs, crime, lust, drunkenness, etc). When he reaches he beats them all, he offers her hope. But she is so consumed by her lusts and pleasures that she saw him as nothing more than a money-producing fling and returned to her demons and sins.

In Depth Analysis: The first verse is him "waking up" and realizing all the judgement, punishment, and criticism that should becoming his way. But because he repented, there was no need. Yet his heart still longed for her. The next few verses healthy desire for her and all the people who care about him telling him to walk away. The next two tell of his realization of the slavery he was under and how the attacks of demonic forces only grew when he had finally seen the light.

When he finally chooses to resist the demons, they fight at full force. Steel are swords and brasses are bullet casings. The description of the battle entails the pain he had to endure to overcome two sets of demons (his and hers which included addiction withdraw and desire to fulfill lust). The big demon in the end is her demon that caused her to lose her purity and sleep with hundreds of men. The demon's sword represents all the lives ruined by her actions. Not only the hundreds she slept with, but the families of those men whose lives she damaged. 

Finally, he defeats his demons and enough of hers to actually get her to see the mess they were in. However, in this case, her lust was greater than her desire to enter the light (hence her dressed in all black appearance) and she chose to return to her filth over salvation.

This piece was written to show that even though we try to guide someone into the light, they may refuse it. But no matter how bleak the situation may seem, it shows that we should be willing to go through hell to redeem a person from the hell they are damning themselves to. I've got friends where hope seems lost, and it's been 7+ years since I started fighting for some of them, and almost nothing has changed. Jesus neveer gave up on us so there is no way I'm ever giving up on them. This is a spiritual war that has a great cost, but it totally worth the battle. So pick up that sword and fight. Answer the Call of Duty.

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