The Undertaker

I am the dearth of generosity

You've noticed in humanity,

Eating by candlelight

Not to be romantic

But to be lit and shadowed

In equal measure.

I am the undertaker

Who requires your flesh

To put bread on his table,

With quick and nimble fingers

Taking to your throat

For if a volunteer isn't found

You will be plucked from the ground.

My ears have not gone numb

Rather opened ever wider

To the sound of your screams

Which is music to me.

The rain that pours

On earth, it abhors

The stink in your bones

That can't be scrubbed off.

Clamp my fangs down on your neck

The only colour I'll allow.

Milk teeth filled with syrup

To lure in the young,

‘Hi hungry I'm a dad’

No longer just a joke.

For I am the father of want

The patriarch of emptiness

Master of discontent.

Living in the space between thoughts,

Making spots in vision

And black closing in on sight.

Giving bravery jaundice

Until yellowed into cowardice

Taking captive every heroic act,

Affection an infection

Carved out with rusted tools.

Things corrosive

Things explosive

All things inside of me.

The chemistry set tipping

To brew something disastrous.

Carefully procured nightmares

And the best days of your life,

Things I condone to make

The fall was more precipitous.

Murdering my own mother

Sell to slavery the brother

To be your thief of dreams.

A demon of tears and fire

Against all people I conspire.

The creature scratching at the door

Hairline fracture of the soul,

I live in every heart

In the chambers of each mind

Grown in terror.

Only one way to kick me out

A solitary chance

Claim your life, not as your own

I will be forced to let you keep it.