Nightfall arrives, bringing rise

To the city's spiders

In the corners, beneath your feet

Behind every fail-safe and the hubris of the elite

When the tower bells sound

Peace is anything but given and found.

Steal from the plenty

Give in to our fancies

Such is the life of the crook

Raised from indulgence's underbelly.

For our battlegrounds are layered with grime

Not unlike the velvet carpets of the skies, but still

Like lightning with no master

We'll cleave the world in two

To them it'll seem

Ungodly and cruel

But the smiles upon which they prop themselves

Are only as fleeting as the waning moon

No bridge, no scythe

To reach across and shelter the people's fright.

In shadows, we thrive

In loss, we grow stronger

Deprived of which others take for granted

Our knives, we hone with a different set of stones;

Not the fancy jewels bought with vanity

But promises and lies that are

Built from dust

Made to rust

Then we'll watch them burn to the ground

Just to build another kingdom to fall.

But like a fish

Hooked on the wrong end of the wire

My pride flounders from the shadows to the blazing light

That entices me to bask in the fear

Drowning the city, night after night

As they scurry about

In blood-bought robes

Oblivious to the face of their true king.

So I fight to keep onto what is mine

Carve my names onto the walls of this forsaken city

With bones that litter the path I've journeyed

Without regret, without apologies

I'll bite down on the molten cores

Of long forgotten stars

And do what I do best

Follow not the law but my own code of worth

And crush others with little mirth

All while flitting in and out under the watchful owl's gaze

Climbing up, and up, and up the bodies

To someday reach a home

That I can welcome myself with honest words.

-the crook