Words Overhear in the Underworld

Words Overheard in the Underworld

Words overheard in the Underworld convention,
Fighting over muffled voices, echoing cavern walls.
Hades’ voice, or Beelzebub’s,
Querying who the apex monster could be.

A fight for first place ensued, between the raging fires,
And screams of eternally tormented, anguished souls.
Demonic voices, or vampiric,
Howling loudly with depictions of evil misdeeds.

From the darkest corner stepped an old soul, wizened,
Worn over time from the study of a new breed, humanity.
He who is banged his cane,
Silence washed over the mob like a haunted ripple.

The withering soul in sadness took the stage reluctantly,
In grief his choice he would explain according to the rite.
He spoke with a broken soul,
Demonic masses listened in awe at the revelations.

‘Humanity left the garden driven by emotions so severe,
Self-serving were their deeds, sadistic in nature.
Feeding the wife to the serpent or vagabond,
Hoarding when there was plenty.

Stealing the lands of the Hittites, sons sent to certain death,
For material goods. Forcing unions unsought, unwelcome!
Mutilating the young to control their urges, slavery.
Torturing with living burials and burning on the pyre.

Growing in knowledge fit for purpose to sate the evil soul,
Island depravities, as the weaker were slain, conquest.
Insanity in the Caesars’ minds, cut young from wombs,
Improved in dignity as methods evolved.

Brazen bull, roasting the innocent, making music for kings,
Posing as gods on Earth, to enable their sick debauchery.
Kings of riches, kings of spirit, offering eternity.
Heretics suffered the maiden’s spikes, pendulum scrapes.

Condemned and burnt alive, crying out for redemption,
Their whimpers falling on heartless souls, soulless hearts.
Feeding clamouring audiences desperate for blood shed,
Even the beasts do not torture for titillation.

Rife executions to kin, only to gain a temporal command,
Driven by lusts for gold and depraved experience.
Spreading violence across many borders, removing poor,
Even the beasts’ kills are colour blind.

Defensive in ages of shadow, roaming tribes’ swords,
Arrows wedged in the flesh determine a painful demise.
Organs removed for entertainment, and cruel control,
Severing limbs for sport, severing tusks for the same.

Developing crueller methods, as tyrants continued to rise,
Bleeding the virgin’s magic, impaling on spikes and sticks.
Removing fingernails, and fingers. Stretching and boiling.
Ever seeking more effective and magnificent methods.

Arrows became guns, but boys were still sent to hell,
Modern horses wore armour and flew dropping devices.
Death tolls increased as the fireworks exploded,
And the guns yelled across barbed fields and mines.

Slaves fought to remain enslaved, at the point of a bayonet,
In secret suspects suffered; drowning and hanging.
Instead of feeding the hungry or housing the homeless,
Gold was used to cause suffering, subtle viruses made.

Black oozed from every orifice, experiment or enemy,
Did it matter? Gas already riddled the nerves.
Even in the poorest, the sickness could be found,
Mass slayers, cannibals, testing on man and beast.

Treating the sickness with sickness, electrocution,
Gas or syringe. Justifying the unjustifiable with law.
Law made by the kings, wickedness in playgrounds,
Whilst brains formed a new insanity.

From the sky it fell, and split with such ferocity,
Rising to the heavens a deadly, awesome cloud.
Searing, blinding, sweeping and shaking across the ground,
Melting survivors slowly, excruciatingly.

Sweeping up the debris of the powerful elements,
Uranium fired as dust through the air, defecting births.
Lone degenerates driven insane, by suggestion or suffering,
Destroyed others in delusional frenzy, or sorrow.’

A tear escaped the pitiful man as he abandoned the stage,
A great silence and awe fell across the dumb struck crowd;
The monsters driven by role or need, the beasts by survival,
Humanity had the luxury of choice, the cavern shivered.

The speaker returned to the stage, unsure of his role,
‘Humanity is the Apex Monster,’ he uttered sadly.
No one celebrated, nor cheered, the darkest enlightened,
As the Earth continued to suffer its most malignant cancer.