They laced the wine with poison,
Waiting expectantly with traitorous eyes,
For the inevitable that would never come.

Not knowing a more potent venom flows in my blood.

Everyone and everything that I treasured is gone.
Whittled away one by one, ashes scattered in the wind.
Innocence betrayed, only an empty soul resides.

They wished to provoke the sleeping beast within.
I have no choice or rancor but to oblige.

***********

A/N:  Original art by A. Brightspell