8. The Night Bringer

Author’s note: I’m working on another creative write piece about the afterlife that is taking me a long, long time to write. I wanted to make sure and not let everything sit idly by while that gets worked on, so took a moment out from writing that piece to write a dark poem from the vantage point of the Grim Reaper itself. This one is a little dark, so I’ll provide a bit of a content warning. But I did have fun writing this.

My name is Death…
the bringer of night, but not a dream
When I approach, you clutch your chest
as I tear you from this world
Ripped apart like a seam
RIP to you
You silently scream

The tick tocking of the clock on the wall
Sounds like glock shots in your ear
The old man as his old wife holds him tight
The premature baby as her mom sheds a tear
The young man smashed off his bike
I can’t be stopped
So get right.

You try to defeat me with science
Get that bank, plug yourself in like a dishwasher
I laugh in defiance
All you’ve bought is time
which you’ve already squandered on the chase

I’m undefeated and undefeatable
and hold a perfect record for all time
You’d think I’d be bored
Perfecting my craft over a millennia of a millennia of a
millennia of a OH NO I’VE LOST COUNT
Baby, I’m just getting warmed up
You aint seen nothing yet

You wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve seen
You people can be so fucked in the head
Making my job easy
Look at the Burgs alone:
Gettysburg, Bergen-Belsen and then Nuremberg
a shiny ship
a shinier iceberg
Some sick fuck in a synagogue in Pittsburgh
and you dare call me mean?

“Oh but would you look at the time?”
You might not be or give many damns
But I’m staring at you in the dark like Silence of the Lambs
Go ahead, shoot that drug, steal from those kids
Put in a good 8-to-5 with a one hour lunch break
Be a good person, sell to the highest bidder
I’m already in you
hiding in your eyelids

I’m not indifferent to your pain
In fact, it kind of turns me on
Scream a little louder, pretty soon you’ll be gone
On a long enough timeline it all goes to zero
The dead will be dust, the light goes out
The last universe stops spinning and
the black holes become black nothings
The last pawn defeats the last queen
Once the universe goes black, there aint no coming back
And only then will I be lonely