The Cause Of It All

You look into my eyes
sending a shiver down my spine
You look into my eyes
and my blood transforms into ice

You look into my eyes
and I see a vision
I see
a nightmare

Screams
slice
through the air
piercing, stabbing, penetrating
the tranquility surrounding me

People trample me
covered
in wounds; blood oozing
hair matted and hanging
in masses

Whatever could have happened to
cause such terror amongst us?
Whatever could have occurred to
cause such wretchedness and dejection?

In answer to my distressed
bewildered gape, another
illustration smolders into sight

I see homes burning
people within howling
crying out in anguish

I see people whipping people
their own daughters sons and wives
I see slaughter    suicide
I see death
O
what a spectacle

The tang of blistering flesh
burning to vestiges
screeching contorted bodies
writhing as souls set aflame
devour their fortification
“But why?!” I cry
puzzlement
distorting my appearance
“Why is this happening?
We don’t deserve this!”

“Don’t you understand?” your
crooning voice echoes through my body
“This is the future; you are the basis of it all!”

“No…” I whispered
terror claiming my eyes
“No! It can’t be! I
would never do such a thing as this!”

“But you will!” an excited influence
hummed in my ear
“Look!”

An detonation of pictures
catapulted into view
Flashes of people
warfare    malady    fatality
It prevailed over me
and then
everything
stopped
on
one
figure.

Me.

Rampaging  running  dancing
but not with elation
With rage  misery  detest
Hatred spewed from that orifice
abhorrence from the eyes
“That’s not me! It couldn’t possibly!”

“Watch” you reverberated
through my essence
“Just watch”

Not rapidly
but    leisurely    this time
ever  so    gradually
that lethal stupor shackled me
to the earth
Capturing my awareness
was the likeness of that
fiend
and why she was
what
she was

Abuse        rape
abandonment          rejection
betrayal              hatred

and more

Memories inundate my mind
I lie quaking
There was no else near
I was
alone

all alone

left to my
desolation and
failing future