In the Prison of the Crawling Dead

(From The Defiant Heart)

It was a prison, it was a village,
It was a place for death and decay,
Where those punished by the law,
Came to live out their last days.

The government had a new decree,
But it was really a severe death sentence
To take away everything they had,
By removing their limbs and senses.

Right after the courts found them guilty,
To the butchers they were slated,
And within three days of their verdicts,
Eyes, tongues, arms and legs…all amputated.

Then the real agony began…

They were cast to a remote settlement,
Thieves and murderers all were doomed,
Even those who fought against the law,
Found themselves punished and marooned.

Their broken torsos slithered and crawled
In the dirt with filthy dressings writhing in pain,
Like snakes upon the earth in dust and mud,
With blood still dripping, begging to be slain.

Some quartered bodies just lay there rotting,
Their mouths half sewn let out muffled cries,
Like wounded animals they wailed and twitched,
Their empty sockets watching with eyeless eyes.

And those who had survived a long time,
Burning under the sun, slowly emaciated,
With a faceless expression of one last hope,
Wishing for a death blow, they waited and waited.

It was hell on earth, all humanity was lost,
The crawling dead crawled to me in a horde,
I stood there like an angel of mercy and death,
And with compassion I slowly drew my sword….