That Sinking Feeling, by Amory McKeever

(image by nonparanoid.deviantart)

At least the water isn't fake

It can be touched, it can be tasted

It smells of the Salton Sea

and like that faulted little lake

the one that shakes your reality

you get swallowed by the quake

At least the water tells the truth

It doesn't let you up for air

just to steal away your youth

It won't shower you with compliments

and build upon your confidence

while secretly the opposite

the whole time you're being used

At least the water doesn't lie

It doesn't fill your lungs

then pretend that you have time

It won't swell up inside your chest

wearing a smile and a dress

taking your last breath

but not kind enough to let you die

At least the water is honest

It won't put your faith in a future

then reveal itself a false prophet

She said you couldn't live without her

and hook and line you bought it

so when you're signing your farewell

this is exactly what she promised

The Lycan, by Amory McKeever

Odin and Fenris (1909) by Dorothy Hardy

Who wins is the one he feeds

the gentleman or the beast

the calm and quiet surface

or the tempest underneath

While the man sets the table

a darker half looks to feast

the unfortunate delicacy

will be the one he needs

The mask a few layers thin

pretends to be a mortal man

yet wilding under the skin

it hungers to bite the hand

Destroyed from the outside in

still they'll never understand

it's the prize he cannot win

he can never be the plan

The monster wants to pull it

unzip that façade like a suit

slither out of that frail knit

to take his place among the root

A former personality split

now becomes the master brute

with no hope or silver bullets

the wolf who ate is absolute

Breaking Point, by Amory McKeever

This is not my first time

in fact I wish it was the last

Honestly it never ends well

though I'm having such a blast

Alive again with a racing heart

a smile that can warm the sun

Spinning my wheels and I'm ready to start

counting trophies that I haven't won

To feel this way just once

would be enough to wear me out

yet there's no way I want to fall asleep

and I am pleading from the mouth

As quiet as I possibly can

I whisper the message in your ear

Something I've never said before

something only your soul can hear

This won't be the first time

not even the second or the third

I've been down this path before

where the lines are broke and blurred

Sinking again with a breaking mind

a pain that could dim the sun

something that takes a hundred lifetimes to find

was found and lost all in one

To feel this way just once

would be enough to sell me out

but the price is much more steep

and I am bleeding from the mouth

As loud as I possibly can

I say exactly what I mean

when you're slipping through my hands

I'm trying hard not to scream

***

Viviane, by Amory McKeever

His life was not a fable

when he saw no heroes left

with no loyalty around his table

his heart was taken in a theft

Gone were the dragons of legend

and missing the maidens of virtue

they didn't exist he reckoned

The path grew ever more narrow

as his Camelot disappeared

A knight of a nameless barrow

and the emptiness he feared

But when all that is left was rage

his chivalry hanging by a cord

a goddess reaches from the sage

and handed him her sword

Her eyes like a storming sea

that no seafarer could resist

Her love and sorcerer to be

stood silently bewitched

This enchantress brought to him

empowered and refreshed

a kingdom peering through the scrim

renewed with riches blessed

She said to him where Arthur failed

surely he would succeed

Where the strength of steel is frail

the true power is to lead

People she said, may tremble before a brute

but they will follow an ideal

Give them something to believe

and you'll never defeat their zeal

So with that he took her hand

and went boldly into the lake

Gazing deep into her emeralds

a new world he sought to wake

image: Lady of the Lake by Gary A Lippincott