Part I · The High School Era (1992–1996)
The old man rests upon the knoll
Overlooking a razed and ravaged plain
Once there was a field of golden grain
But now only scorched earth and ash remain
Images flash by the old man’s mind’s eye
Memories of green
A forgotten land
…Then the Usurper, the Stalker unseen
Often called the Ravishing Fiend
Commands millions of systems, with programs corrupt
And spawns decades of chaos, volcanoes erupt
And mindless machines with weapons galore
Lay waste to cities
Bloodstain the shore…
The sky turned black, the sun gone cold
A million young faces worn haggard and old
A tree struck down, a river run dry
No answers to the questions that only asked why
An abandoned park, dilapidated homes
An unsinging lark and unfinished poems
A fly without wings, shoelaces untied
A steel and stone vault with its door open wide
The old man is freed from his dream
For he hears the sound of moving metal
And sees a creature of iron mettle
Electronic eyes and synthetic ears
Six steel arms with razorblade shears
Born of nightmares
Built from fears
From its body protrude poisoned spears
The man tries to run but falls down the hill
The machine laughs maniacally and closes for the kill
Surging from its torso a spear flies true
Toward the man’s head and right on through
The man lies unmoving
The old man lies dead
A steel and stone vault with its door open wide
A fly without wings, shoelaces untied
An unsinging lark and unfinished poems
An abandoned park, dilapidated homes
No answers to the questions that only asked why
A tree struck down, a river run dry
A million young faces worn haggard and old
The sky turned black, the sun gone cold
Composed 1992–1996 · part of the Poems collection · authorship documented on the Provenance page.