The Herald (Complete)

Yes, I've changed my title after looking over this whole finished work. I think that an archaic word helps to paint a more accurate picture of the timeframe. So here's another eight days worth of my solid work that was dismissed by the 'stars' who stole it in 2007. Why did they hate my poetry so much? Did people find it more stimulating and rewarding than watching their TV shows? By the way, I think Saturday Night Live stole Part IV and the Simpsons stole Part V when I first shared this. I: The Herald Archangelo embarked in a condition of control Ordained the vain front runner on the footpath to his goal Of sovereign authority, his order bore the name A package to deliver and a warning to proclaim He'd been adhering to the line amounting to his norm When of a vital matter did a fleeing girl inform Whose father was a locksmith and the target of a sack That left her with an item that the King expected back A traitor to the royal court, the Duke of Pitch had struck To bring affairs-of-state's delay as his men ran amuck Without the precious envelope that held the royal seal The king could not his might invoke to make the bandit kneel The herald was convinced by her and let himself supplant To navigate through areas a child likely can't Allowing her sufficient leave for family's concern As he alone attended to the property's return Assured by the position of the low, traversing sun He sought the shortest path across the lands the duke had won The wear of cruel dictatorship was in its early stage A shadow closing in, as from the turning of a page By evening, he found refuge in a bleak and cheerless inn Whose keeper seemed to welcome with a condescending grin The serpent that awaited underneath his slender bed Had fangs that sprayed a venom strong enough to leave him dead He managed to contain it by his blanket's timely throw And out the exit least surveyed, proceeded, free to go For sleeping quarters he would have to settle for a glade And let the evening sky extend its drowse inducing shade He drifted to oblivion, surrendering to need And feeling only temporarily, of danger, freed Whatever hurdles lay across his solitary flight Would have to wait at least until the passing of the night II: The Posse A cast of sordid characters converged in hot pursuit As much to grab a victim as to have a chance to loot Three predators intent on intercepting the stray scout Imagined what he'd look like with his hide turned inside out They traveled through the shadows with superior finesse Sufficiently provisioned and assured of their success United by a common and carnivorous desire But each too centred on the self to totally conspire Untypical was Antipath of men who worked for Pitch Instead of breaking out of jail, he crawled out of a ditch He lined the road behind him with the pockmarks of his pike As with the hunted courier, he tried to think alike The product of invasion's most notorious affairs He'd been discovered by the bears and raised as one of theirs They taught him how to wrestle and to hollow out a hole Among the civilized, he sunk to fill the lowest role His fellow fiend, de Bauch, would, from another corner, stalk The witnesses against him were too terrified to talk His fervency for violence propelled him well along Inspired by the kill to come, he broke into a song Towards the lost and frightened girls, he was no longer led In favour of a victim with a bounty on his head To sate his mad, sadistic thirst, he'd crucify and maim Dismissing every screaming plea with neither grief nor shame Young Malady, their trailing mate, kept her beguiling face Sagaciously reserved for the most advantageous place With simpering magnificence, she rounded out the crew From whom the wise Archangelo intensively withdrew Fixated on their roving prize, towards his camp they went With Antipath the first to find it, following the scent The dawn was just upon him and the smoke still in the air The wild paths his prey had walked would show their signs of wear III: The Savages A feeling of foreboding kept the messenger away From deep uncharted regions where the savages would stay Beyond the mounted skulls that marked the bounds of their domain Lay knowledge that Archangelo had no wish to obtain A sportsman, talkative and proud, from round a hill, emerged And joined him where the currents, to the outermost, diverged From there, the two would separate, the sportsman cutting through Ancestral grounds the more informed declined to cross into A hail of arrows fell upon the reckless pioneer Who'd shunned the threat his cautious friend had proven right to fear His anguished cry went out to join the jackal's distant call And keen was the survivor to avoid his own downfall Behind him lumbered Antipath, with sense of smell acute Whose mastery of the outdoors was never in dispute Determined to collect on a superlative reward He closed in on the runner and his vigour was restored The foliage was flattened by his overwhelming weight A force he would employ to overcome and dominate The duke would make him general and put him in command His grunt would be, among the men, the word to understand From dark and unfamiliar wood, the danger was revealed When suddenly was needed the protection of his shield He stumbled backwards into an immobilizing trap Observed by his own target, from a reasonable gap Archangelo descended from the branch where he had hid Delighted to be, of apparent danger, nicely rid Abandoning the stranded brute to, from a swarm, defend He left for new surroundings on which he could more depend Throughout a lonely hamlet, he could only find a stall To stretch out and recover in before the night would fall As in the grim horizon grew a dark, malignant blotch Distinctively embodied by the person of de Bauch IV: The Hounds The moon provided ample means to catch the mundane track The fugitive had taken to accommodate his back De Bauch would wait until the light extinguished on the sill Before advancing to the site elected for the kill He found the sleeper on the floor and held his urge in check Though he stood only inches from his prostrate victim's neck With failure now impossible, he let his visions go Inventing with his twisted mind, a frenzied horror show The prisoner was fancied as he'd be when he was thrown Upon the rack, whose stress bore down on ligament and bone And wore the sorry look that would, for sympathy, implore As rotaries would grind to make him suffer more and more While starving to a skeleton, he'd have to bake the bread To cap the tasty dishes that his torturer was fed In time, he'd have to lie inside his captor's spiked bed frame And scream out to the pushing down of lovers at their game The killer watched the fabric breathe, indulging in his dream With time to let the darkness pass to daybreak's gentle beam At last, he yanked the weave that warmed his unsuspecting toy Which was not, the uncovered hound, intended to annoy The dog exposed incisors to repel the barging guest A grown man was believable for its mouth to ingest It poked its head out quick enough to grab de Bauch's sleeve A tug against the flailing arm, of weapon, would relieve De Bauch went reeling, helmet striking on the kennel bell And landed in the bloody trough for hungry hounds to smell Inside a fort of solid hay, Archangelo awoke The barking now reminding him of how he'd lost his cloak Through exit to an open field, he fled the noisy sound As the intruder's cries for help, in canine fury, drowned A measure of tranquility was in the coming dawn But by the will of Malady, it would again be gone V: The Abbey With vestibule connected to the Brothers of the Son The Daughters of the Lord were, by a rugged matron, run Matilda was her given name, but seldom was it used For Mother held authority, from which none were excused The abbey offered comfort for the pilgrims on the road And one was soon to pass through, with a tantalizing load Ahead of him, did Malady, pretending to be good Say Mary was her Christian name and honour vows she would The Mother knew she couldn't trust the whimsical recruit But someone had to serve the meals and organize the fruit So Malady donned draping robes and occupied the post A testament to purity, she would become almost She liked it best to have her men, to her location, drawn And for her affectations, it was fun to see them fawn With paralyzing poison, she would coat her well honed nails Whose deathblow followed just the flaking of a few loose scales Her first sight of Archangelo, secure within her shawl Confirmed her planning had been good and that the man was tall She peeled off her disguise and put her body on display To tease a silly smile from the one that she would slay Archangelo was taken by the woman's dainty charm And proved to be unusually easy to disarm She could have struck at any time but wanted first to see The eyes of love's devotion from her sacrifice to be She slinked atop his eager lap and swung to face his grin And with her poisoned fingertips, was aiming for his chin When by the shoulders she was seized, her action at an end As Mother undertook to, the delinquent, apprehend The imp was locked inside a cell, protesting in despair And ordered to redeem her dues in penitence and prayer While the confounded wayfarer was sternly told to leave Which cut his evening short of what he thought it might achieve VI: The Impostor Though Antipath's tough shield withstood the savages' assault And spry de Bauch escaped the dogs by stowing in a vault And Malady had slipped away, while freed to do a chore The number of antagonists would be increased to four So far, the duke had not been able to accomplish much But his new agent offered a professional's fine touch A ringer to impersonate the man they had to stop And who, by clever sabotage, could make his credence drop The creep could mimic movements and remould his face at will The workers made poor witnesses, who handed him the till And once he saw the likeness of the other in his glass He headed for the nearest store to infamy amass The store held kegs of powder and its money bags were stout But someone spied him from its site and gathered up his route The regular attendant would take moments to subdue Once Malady deducted where her man was going to She greeted him seductively, recalling their last date And pleased to be so recognized, he thought his plan should wait She led him to the lockers to complete her overthrow Then, with a slam, were both entombed by whom they did not know For outside had de Bauch determined arson was the way To make sure that, for insolence, the innocent would pay He sealed the doors with millstones and set fire to the frame Then pressed his ear to hear the pleas the captives would exclaim Precisely at that vital point, did Antipath collide To punch a splintered doorway in the structure's other side The sparks from his intrusion found the kegs near which they stood Whose blast propelled his pike to pierce de Bauch right through the wood The bang was heard from where their quarry tirelessly stepped The knowledge of the victory, from his awareness, kept As onward, on the final leg of his unwieldy plight Lay lands whose eerie passages assured him of a fight VII: The Demons In straits belonging to the crown, Archangelo remained While passing through the heartland of where hate and darkness reigned The shameful effort failed to cut him down along the rear And now an evil menace, straight before him, would appear His fare was paid by virtue of his mission for the king But to the aggravated duke, such rules meant not a thing A rabid gang convened amid the scenery morose Whose worst adherents couldn't wait to scoff at him up close The power of the relic in the pocket of his coat Had worked to fill his blindest side without his taking note By drawing on the purity of his committed cause From which, against the mounting threat, he looked condemned to pause A coal black panther intersected, letting loose a hiss And to him came a haunting sense of order gone amiss Atrocious hoots consumed the air from every avenue And for the first time, made retreat a valid thing to do He'd made it to the borderline, protected by the seal But now its force diminished with the mission's lost appeal On waning legs, he pushed himself to stay the dreadful course And bear the sounds and pressures that would frighten off a horse Against a dusky canopy, the scowling faces sprawled And by the rhythm of their chant, he soon became enthralled Their eyes were nonexistent and their features hard and cruel His lack of faith in his resolve, to their drive, added fuel They formed a thick, aggressive line that straddled where he'd cross To help him see the imminence of his resounding loss But turning back would only have him running through the fields And so he rose to challenge their robust array of shields His courage flew ahead of him to penetrate their row Beyond them lay his destination, faithfully aglow Success seemed providential as he left the foes behind The magic of the thing he held was absent to his mind VIII: The Court Since ancient times, the clout of sovereign authority Had been, for practical concerns, entrusted to a key Imprinted into noble ore and charged with power, through Intended to contain the rule among the lawful few The placid state was welcome as the summer's gentle breeze Archangelo, in good accommodations, was at ease To catch up on his rest, he felt the elements exhort With time to wash and change to proper garments for the court A coach was sent to take him down the broad road to his aim And see the king's own rightful hand, the artifact, reclaim The herald felt within him rise a warm, euphoric wave That let him know he'd chosen well the one to whom he gave The king invited him to take position on his right And when the seal was pressed to stone, amazing was the sight A platform rose with access to an object from the front Which was a sledge of justice, with an edge condensed and blunt A panorama opened in the stony palace wall Of vantage points collected from the watchful and the tall The forces of the duke, a gloomy blight upon the scape Fell into sweeping clutches that would offer no escape The duke's dragoons would prove that it would only take a tap To hit them with the impact of an angry thunderclap Whose hard vibrations sent them spinning helplessly askew For those who shared the royal court, exclusively, to view The duke was caught at sea and, with his fleet, was sent below His drowning cries were captured for the gratifying show The locksmith greeted cheerfully, his area secure With his young daughter at his side, recovery was sure The herald was content to have his duty fully done And with the ladies of the court, his time had just begun The heroism praised in verses resonant and long Turned out to be the same that had sustained him all along
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© 2007, 2016. Verses and Images by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.