by Nick Gisburne | V1 | How I Wrote It
I was born to bid you welcome to the bleakest show on earth,
Where your mind will make you wonder what a human soul is worth.
Buy a ticket to the terrors of this carnival of sin
With a simple, swift transaction: prick your finger with a pin.
See the priest, whose robes of piety hide all the hope he stole.
See the children, choked by tainted milk, the flies around the bowl.
See the toxic flowers, poisoning a long-forsaken lake.
See the painted witches, weeping, chained with iron to a stake.
See the murderer. Aroused, he breathes his victim’s final fears.
See the winter goddess, frozen in the trauma of her tears.
See the wealthy woman, sipping someone else’s cheap champagne.
See the scars he sliced across her skin, the patterns of her pain.
See the witness who will never speak, because he knows too much.
See the coward in the classroom fear the teacher’s tender touch.
See the guardians, whose mighty eyes are blinded by debris.
See the doorway to a better world, but no one has the key.
See the prima ballerina dance to mutilate her prey.
See the lost and lonely little girl who ends her life today.
See the bridge of twisted tongues the liars cross with filthy feet.
See the tangled twins, born back to back, who know they’ll never meet.
See the giant, last of all of them, with nowhere left to hide.
See the spiteful sons, who celebrate their mother’s suicide.
See the wedding veil, discarded, ripped, the ring not yet returned.
See the books of love and tolerance an angry mob have burned.
See the spider sisters, butchering another eager mate.
See the squealing heathens trapped inside the tombs they desecrate.
See the banquet of cadavers on a tablecloth of skin.
See the unforgiven, slashing at their wrists to free the sin.
See the crimson clown, the smoking gun, the photograph, the note.
See the stockings of a mistress wrapped around her lover’s throat.
See the voodoo queen, her venom spiced with toe and tooth and rib.
See the nursery, the broken toys, the bloodstains in the crib.
See the demon vomit virgin blood. He loathes the taste, the smell.
See the beast who blows the horn to summon all the hordes of Hell.
See the stricken soldier, polishing a fallen brother’s bones.
See the false messiah, martyred with a hail of heavy stones.
See the blazing prison, locked so none inside it can survive.
See the instruments of torture when a friend is flayed alive.
See the sleeper, born without a heart, abandoned in the snow.
See the roots of evil, buried, but forever sure to grow.
See the moment when a slaughtered angel screams her final breath.
See the boat, the hope of helpless misfits, sinking. See their death.
See the widow, sobbing, smothered by the ruins of her life.
See the dirty baby, silenced by the motion of a knife.
See the waif who wants to feed herself, but cannot find her face.
See the everlasting road to ruin, dark as death’s embrace.
See the beggar swing a brick to burst his time-tormented brain.
See the father find his daughters dead, the joy they gave him drain.
See the howling orphans strung above the black abyss of doom.
See the mermaid rip the monster from her violated womb.
See the boy, reborn. Forgotten, he will die, deceived, again.
See the sorceress who saves her coldest cruelties for men.
See the tree of snakes, the heads of infants hanging high, its fruit.
See the prince of peace, who crushed a hundred nations with his boot.
See the punisher of hypocrites too sickening to save.
See the miser mock a funeral. His name is on the grave.
See the crooked crown, too heavy for the head of any king.
See the man without a voice, who mourns the songs he cannot sing.
See the great dictator, haunted by the hate of those he rules.
See the mirror. See yourself, inside this maze of mindless fools.
You have bargained with your blood, to feed the hunger in your head,
But a one-way ticket only lets you leave us when you’re dead.
You will never need to wonder what a human soul is worth.
See the secret. Stay forever, in the bleakest show on earth.
