To Have Shaken Hands With The Devil Means He Knows Your Name

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

icebox
Member Elite

since 2003-05-03

Posts 4383
in the shadows

0 posted 2003-09-02 06:02 PM

My job had been to train you;
my task had been to teach you
skills of which I am now ashamed.
I don't blame you
for the weakness of my heart;
though you took all I had to share
without a care for what or who was left behind.
I could have let them kill you
when they offered it for free;
I know it wasn't so much me
as their own hides they were concerned about:
what might I have left
within the candor of a lover's bed;
and wouldn't I feel safer with you dead;
but I kept back some cards on them,
my other hand still grips the edge of sanity,
and so they picked apart
what I might have said
before you blithely were allowed
to sail away
to shatter someone else's dreams;
it's hard for me to count now
how many years it's been.
I don't know if you were told.
I know I didn't say back then
how close you came
to never growing old;
you see these people
in the deep background,
the back channels,
the sewers of world affairs,
believe nothing's what it seems
but I convinced them
that your only interest was yourself
and your private dreams,
that no one earns an equal place
at your table,
that my own love
and hopes and dreams
the plans that we had made
were nothing more than landfill
for the canebrake trails and flowerbeds
along the rivers of your soul,
borrowed for diversion's sake
while you build and stack
your latest house of cards.
In the end,
for what it's worth,
I gave what I could give:
they let you live.

©2003 by icebox

Ratleader

Member Rara Avis

since 2003-01-23

Posts 7026
Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass

1 posted 2003-09-02 06:06 PM

Yes sir.... that pretty much lays it on the line! And excellently so. This has the feel of one you really needed to write. Nice work, man.

~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº> ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº> ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº>
______________Ratleader______________

icebox
Member Elite

since 2003-05-03

Posts 4383
in the shadows

2 posted 2003-09-02 07:14 PM

Thanks, yes it has been rattling around inside me for a long time. Some people just never know what gifts they have been given.

Martie

Moderator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-09-21

Posts 28049
California

3 posted 2003-09-02 08:46 PM

icebox

It's hard for a person like me, to see this kind of reality...thank you for sharing it and for being my friend.

Susan Caldwell
Member Rara Avis

since 2002-12-27

Posts 8348
Florida

4 posted 2003-09-03 09:39 AM

Icy~

This was stunning and I am sure I am not to understand it all, just the message behind it...

But I love stories and this one leaves me so curious..

Susan

KristieSue

Senior Member

since 2003-01-31

Posts 1460
PA, US

5 posted 2003-09-03 10:06 AM

I'm with Sue, I'd love to hear more of the story...

very gripping...

great job

Failure isn't failure if a lesson from it is learned ~ KS

Kethry
Member Rara Avis

since 2000-07-29

Posts 9082
Victoria Australia

6 posted 2003-09-03 10:16 AM

Amazing write! Doesn't duplicity make for strange bedfellows? Now I know why Shakespeare wrote to thine own self be true.
Kethry

Here in the midst of my lonely abyss, a single joy I find...your presence in my mind. Unknown

icebox
Member Elite

since 2003-05-03

Posts 4383
in the shadows

7 posted 2003-09-03 10:41 PM

Martie ~ The best mysteries hide in plain sight. *smile* Thank you my friend for trying to understand.

Susan Caldwell ~ This is not a story for a dinner time. *smile*

KristieSue ~ Some stories are difficult to tell. Thank you for your thoughts.

Kethry ~ "The knowledge of one's roots
I call enlightenment and say
That not to know it
Is blindness that works evil."

~~Lao Tzu~~

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.