As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

1- ☾☾ ☾ ☾☾

until his loosen'd grip is not so bad,

and Torturer then slumps upon the floor

surrounded by a pool of crimson blood

that spreads as more still gushes out his wounds.                   50

 Pariah wipes the blade upon the corpse

whilst feeling shape impress'd into his palm;

examining the hilt he sees a moon

emboss'd in crescent form upon its length

and smiles at the serendipity. 

 From here Pariah takes from Torturer

the ring of keys, now jangling in his hand.

"Hey, you!" a disembodied voice resounds,

to which Pariah turns his gaze and sees

the man in cell across the corridor               60

is leaning on the bars, his olive tone

so marking more a foreigner than our

Pariah even is, surprisingly.

The Minister, upon attention got,

now points toward the key within his hand.

"I miss mine home and friends so far away

and ask, if you've a heart, to set me free

for me to leave this land and not return,

for nothing of my journey's been of worth

upon reflection of the life I led                          70

when first I ventur'd out to see the South

and find what sorts of allies could be made."

Without a word Pariah twists the key

to open door that bars the man inside,

and down the corridor doth he unlock

each cage containing women, men alike

until he's rallied unto him a force                            

of forty bodies lusting for revenge,

and ten he sends with th'ring of jangling keys

to free the others that are jailed here                   80

and try to overwhelm a guard or two                 

with numbers so they may equip themselves,                 

increasing chance of their success in this.

And with the other thirty doth he march

toward the courtyard where the Warden waits,

and when their number walks into the night

that's lit by braziers lin'd before the walls                  

and torches held by guards at Warden's side,

Pariah points his bloodied knife toward

the fatten'd man who sits upon a chair                      90

and says to him: "You tried to make to serve

a man who slav'd a decade of his life,

but for authority I've done enough,

and now it comes your prison is no more.

These men and women are to be set free

and you and yours the victims of this place,

as you will die upon this blade I hold

and so your guards will fall upon their swords."

Dumbfounded for a moment, Warden stares

at all the force accru'd within his yard.                     100

But soon doth he recover from his shock,

and here he argues: "I will not here fall

to those as thee and these recalcitrants.

My guards! To me! Defend me from this filth

with lethal force, for all of them are lost,

and so our profits will sustain the hit."

The guards now step in front, protecting him,               

but with a force of five they're overwhelm'd                  

and swarm'd until each falls to his own blade

which hath been torn away from in his grip;                 110

at this the Warden makes to run inside

and chase ensues throughout the corridors.

Pariah sends his troops in teams to cut

him off at exits he may hope to take

until they pincer him within a hall

and close the distance twixt, whereat he draws

a knife to fend them off with shaking fear.

But when he's grabb'd he drops it to the floor                     

where he is dragg'd to join it on his back,

and blades are rais'd, but here Pariah steps              120

in, taking some control of this event

and saying to his fellow prisoners:

"Do halt, do wait! This man who's harm'd us so

deserves a fate more fitting for his part

in crimes committed by th'establishment."

The Minister among the crowd looks up

and to Pariah doth he ask these words:               

"But what could be a more appropriate

of fates than death for Warden who did see                    

our suffering as coin to line his purse?"               130

Pariah leads the crowd to drag the man

along toward the courtyard where they tie

his ankles with the rope attach'd to th'winch

and also one to bind his arms to sides                    

before they lift him squirming off the ground

and take a bucket here from someone's cage—

a toilet that's been left to overfill—                     

which then they place beneath the hanging man's

suspended head, which now they lower down                 

until he is submerg'd from nose to mouth,                140

and there Pariah leaves the man to drown

within the filth he forc'd to fester here.

Pariah finds a horse that's tied outside

whom probably a prison guard once own'd

who now is dead by th'riot's righteous hands,

and on this steed he rides toward the town

that he can twilit see down th'winding road.                           147