Four Poems by Louis Kasatkin

 

HEAVY METAL 4.0

 

Nights are the razor-wire 

that ensnare our dreams

gashing and slashing

all our tomorrows,

making them bleed

our hopes away

into the howling silence

of a timeless void,

where nothing itself

has no place

for the crying, the dying

the lying, the sighing 

snagged on scintillating slivers of steel

tearing and shredding who we are,

until we learn to crawl 

across the ruined landscape

of our own Apocalypse. 

 

 

HEAVY METAL 3.0 

 

When lies become the eyes 

of those who don't want to see

truth tortured in darkened 

cells deep inside

our own minds;

undermined by a slow 

seeping slime of our 

appetites disgorged in

an endless orgy of excess

then still even more;

of the comfortable lies

flattering deceiving us all,

here at the Hotel California 

where others make our beds

and we lie in them,

outside in the cold daylight

others see only

our torture table.

 

 

HEAVY METAL 2.0

 

Thro' a darkening haze

of Crimson, White and Blue

We fêted their corruption 

and supped the sweet poison of Empire;

We wrapped ourselves in furs

while others froze,

Put rings of gold on our fingers

while others made their fingers bleed,

We wore the finest silk on our backs

while others broke theirs;

We stole their promised lands

We raised up idols of marble and brass 

making others worship

the works of our hands and

the deeds of the Berserkers

who disembarked their dragon boats

on alien shores

and first claimed the sky

as their Valhalla.

 

 

HEAVY METAL

 

Our broken tomorrows 

pile their corpses up to the sky,

The Red you see on the horizon 

is the blood flowing in your veins,

Screams of torment are the soundtrack

to your final living days ;

Darkness itself has retreated

before the oncoming Dawn

of all our broken tomorrows 

set out in endless rows,

where we ourselves the mourners

cast wreaths upon our fate

gazing blindly on the unlit pyres

we reach out for a match to strike..

Louis Kasatkin is founder of Destiny Poets in the UK and Editorial Administrator at www.destinypoets.co.uk. For more than 20 years a Poet and Poetry promoter,Louis has been Poet-in-Residence at Wakefield Cathedral and workshop leader in schools and the wider local community.