At the end of the world,
At the end of all time,
When the sky opened unto hell
and demons flew about,
and God's blood rained down,
Memnoch the Fallen came to speak with me.
"When the beasts rave,
And the teardrops fall,
And despair is the air you breathe,
Will you still hold your love?
Will you guard him from death?
Have you the courage to face the beast yourself?"
As my devil spoke these words,
The things he said were shown to me.
Behind him the battle raged,
and I saw myself,
and I saw the beast,
And fear struck deep in my heart.
And I spoke:
"Not his golden hair, not his slender frame,
Nor his eyes as deep as the sea,
He must never face this terror.
He has seen too much,
He is lost in the dark,
I will shed my light for him.
"Too long has he fought for breath,
Drowning in oceans of despair.
And too little have I done on his account.
I will be the one to fall,
I will be the one to fight.
I will cradle his head in the final hour."
And away from the battles
On a pristine hill, the Devil and I,
Memnoch nodded, and I saw his eyes.
I saw the angel before the fall,
I saw the will to still do good.
"I wanted love like yours," he said.
I was swept away, on a wind with my love.
Safe and hidden from holy wars,
We lay together, waiting in uncertainty
for the storms to pass,
for the end of time,
But I cradle his head, and we wait.
Author notes
Okay, inspiration from this piece comes from a number of places... there was a contest that ended before I could finish this that wanted a piece about what you would save if the world were to end, without using lovey-dovey language.
So that got me to thinking, and I went to one of my favorite poems on Oldpoetry.com, Stephen Maria Crane's "God lay dead in Heaven," and that's where I took the title and the images of the beast and a woman cradling a man's head from.
Finally, Memnoch is the name Anne Rice bestowed upon the Fallen Angel of Christian religions in her Vampire Chronicles, and I just think it has a more musical and poetic ring than does "Satan" or "Lucifer." I used it also for the characterization that I gave the devil, it's a bit different and more compassionate than tradition, but hey, so am I.
Anyway, I hope you like it, and if you hate my characterization, I want to hear from you!
Written February 25th, 2004
What did you think
Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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this is great... the form, the story, the characters... everything. right on. nice write and thanks for sharing.
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I LOVE ANNE RICE!!! It was awesome to start reading and had a powerful ending making the reader question what lies ahead, but knowing whatever happens, these two will have eachother. When you started talking about Memnoch, i thought you captured the characture just as well as rice would have. great job
-jamie t. -
Thanks so much Abby, I worked really hard on this one, it actually went through two distinct drafts, and i don't normally draft poems. Again, thanks for your lovely comment.
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No Words Can Be Said
This piece is awesome. The whole time I was reading it, my eyes were glued to every line, anticpating what the next plot was to be. This poem is mesmerizing. You did a terrific job with this. I can't even say how good it is, cuz there are no words... -
THANK YOU!! This one took me a while to get right.
I appreciate the positive comment and the applause!!
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You gave me a little chill reading this, well done, very well done indeed. Thanks for the comment you left on one of my poems, "Light" if I'm not mistaken. I hesitantly clicked this, expecting a typical "rawr I hate God" write, but you delivered much more. Nice use of a multitude of sources and, in particular, bravo on showing the duality of a typically heinous character. Awesome.
-Jeff -
Thanks so much! If you're interested to read Crane's poem, you can find it at http://www.oldpoetry.com/poetry/5827
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This is great. I loved the word choice, so full of emotion and not cliched like alot of love poems are. I don't know much about the Old Poetry poem you mentioned, but the title certainly fits this piece well. Like I said earlier, this is great. Keep it up! ~CD
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i loved this it is great...so filled with emotion...you have chosen some good words...to describe how you feel about a certain sumthing...its great....well keep up the good work and i will be reading more from you in the near future... lots of love Tabby Cat
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