The Host (Complete)

I: The Crowd In the crowd were mountain movers, titans through and through Kings and queens of vast domains and superheroes, too In a bulging wave they went, erasing all along Each one's slim position giving proof of being strong Divvying the workload into manageable shares Left them with enough time to devote to private cares Following the path presented by the neighbour's lead For direction's calculations spared them of the need Summoned by the spectacle to gather into rows Thence to cast off differences where nobody knows Absolute euphoria would pass among the lot Equally distributed from elderly to tot Only when the sun would set, decreeing sleep's withdrawal Splintered by their ranging dreams, their confidence would fall Motionless, they fancied courses dangerous and bold For as long as darkness let them stray outside the fold In the crowd were plump faced children, running to and fro Eagerest to voice their thoughts and let their feelings show Always close to parents, though behaviour would display Their desire to be loved by strangers faraway All the world was well and good, as far as they could see Lots of games for them to play and time for fantasy Unaware of fatal sentence, like a toothy shark Standing by to swallow them and trap them in the dark Scrambling to find their way home from the shopping sprees Were the women, contours tucked in folds designed to please More than half the world was theirs, with children on their side Drinking brightly coloured lanes through eyes extended wide Into tidy units, interlocking as a whole Did each man, with wife and offspring, see his vital role Likeliest to look upon the bachelor forlorn As a kind of heretic, deserving only scorn On the pedestal reserved for rulers high above Showing virtue, said the sage, was how to procure love Freeing up the people for a feral exercise Neighbours bluntly trampled in the name of enterprise Virtue could the wealthy rulers more afford to choose Which they by their fortune's choice were just as soon to lose Settling for images of decency's embrace Forced upon submissive eyes through television's face This made real integrity a thing to be destroyed Certainly when manifesting in the unemployed No chance for comparisons against a flimsy claim Would be possible for those without a favoured name So it was an ordinary father's sorry fate To feed his dependents with a pirate's piece of eight And let his superiors confuse his troubled mind Until blind enough to be misguided by the blind II: The Hermit Perched upon a hilltop far from flattened avenue Stood a simple cabin with a transcendental view Occupied by he who had rejected life below Ending up in isolation, scholarship to grow Though brought up on common rites and taught to stand astride From the great society, he'd chosen since to hide Grievously equipped with such a penetrating gaze He detected tragic faults in finest fellows' ways Keen to cultivate his mind, he studied all he could Drawing from materials unpopular but good As a vicious irony, he presently would find Himself by detachment bonded fast to humankind He could tell the hour by the angle of the sun And his daily chores were always to the fullest done No misgivings would await to taunt him at his end Precious heartbeats more efficiently he could not spend Sometimes by a special sight his memory would haunt Of the time before and of the life he used to want Such as when a pretty robin hopped up to his door Certain to have pleased his bygone lover even more She was sweet and simple, from the consecrating farm Floating over footfalls with a devastating charm Curly locks unfolding like a masterpiece's frame Rushes still upset him when they whispered out her name He'd constructed lengthy odes to glorify her form Passion bursting at the seams like thunder from a storm Just for an untalented degenerate to steal And to make a dirty lie from feelings felt for real She succumbed to the deception, or so it appeared Until came to light a truth too awful to be feared Knowledge of enchanting verses torn from helpless heart Had the woman kept her secret from the very start First the pain of such a blow had set his anger loose From committing murder was he safe as a recluse With the passing seasons did his violence subside Bitterness remaining in the wake of blood red tide He resolved to not repeat the humbling mistake Fuzzy dreams of fatherhood were better to forsake Like a sturdy fortress were the bookshelves of his den Fitted with a lens of telescopic acumen Talent he could not suppress new works of beauty fed Dedicated to a phantom in his lost love's stead Hardly to be disappointed by the empty air Or to find with highest hopes unfitting to compare From his solitary station, great his wisdom grew As the portals opened and the muses past him flew For solutions he had only to explore within As his own competitor, he best professed to win III: The Animals In the lofty overgrowth, the wild creatures flocked Turning backs on lodges with their entrances unlocked Families established by a unifying scent Each of whose most prominent held stalls in parliament A return to Eden was their elemental plan This time wishing to escape the company of man Contradicting instinct to assemble as a whole By which they might expeditiously achieve their goal They allowed the hermit to encroach upon their state Knowing that he could not multiply without a mate Kept as individuals, the humans were humane Not enveloped by their own, inclined to good remain By the burning venom of a double talking asp Generations of the upright had escaped God's grasp As was evidenced by their remorseless legacy Wielding lethal power in a fearsome tyranny God intended all his children to be down to earth And to cherish property of more than passing worth Ever since the human forbears drifted so astray It had been the animals who rightly led the way Now the woodland citizens positioning to thwart The expansion of a road that cut straight through their court Hoped by such a bold display to herald a new age Which might free their kindred from the exhibition's cage Eagles made the perfect lookouts, vision sharp and clear They detected enemies before they could get near Sounding off a signal as though screeching out in pain Beavers slapped responses passed to bears along the chain The construction workers hacked away to no avail Little to impel them but the progress of a snail Until dynamite was turned to out of their despair Sending great reverberations pulsing through the air To reclaim their territory were dispatched the boars Commonly reputed as the fiercest on all fours But a gross miscalculation pitted brawn with steel As the failure of their charge proceeded to reveal Overseeing operations from a rugged loft Marshall Owell probed for where the enemy was soft And the influenza victim shortly made him wise To a better soldier of immensely smaller size So the flying bugs descended on the hapless crew Having filled up at a pond infected by the flu On a kamikaze crash course, bent on breaking skin And on laying low Goliaths with a pricking pin Harmony returned before the summer sun would set On the field of battle had the men their matches met Carried off on stretchers to the remedy receive As the rodents lined the road to watch the engines leave IV: The Psychopath Profit making summarized the corporation's aim Any cost effective method practiced without shame Taking on the likeness of an evil entity Human rights awarded to what human could not be Founded by a poker shark a century before It had swallowed up the landscape to extend its store Public legislation bending to its private need Tentacles extending to accommodate its greed Paralyzing holdings bore a spiritual stain As the good was compromised for monetary gain Persons paid on its behalf would lend an honest face Certain to divert the glare provoked by its disgrace Honoring the decadence to which the flesh is prone Furnished it the grandeur of a figure cut from stone Yielding to the nature of a predatory beast Put it in an attitude to feed the poor a feast From her conscientious mother, Suzie learned to weave Taking to it at a rate ambitious to believe To express her girlhood, she found polka dots the best For the slippers that she gave a sleeping over guest Once the guest had put them on, she wanted them to keep Asking Suzie on the morning following her sleep She said that her toes could tell a good thing had been found Of the product, promising to pass the word around Suzie was delighted to comply with such a wish Doubling her weaving in a rapture feverish To her love's appreciation many testified Until polka dots would cover carpets region wide Sales of indoor footwear fell as her successes grew Which for her competitor would certainly not do It was bad for business to be handing out for free Items that improved upon commercial quality First the fiend intruded on her novel new design Calibrating great machines to weave a weave more fine And flood shelves with counterfeits to let her sales clerk state Homemade handouts transgressed to the style imitate Hurtful as this might have been to somebody so sweet The successful child stood up firm against defeat Imperfections lent her work a real old fashioned charm Far beyond the means of a robotic metal arm So the corporation did the girl's repute assault Finding in her overhead a vague accounting fault It was such a menace to so flagrantly infract Government authorities were called upon to act Thus did little Suzie, at the tender age of ten Almost pass directly from the cradle to the pen Notches counted up the days of her unhappy spell For the crime of giving what the psychopath would sell V: The Fire Banners bearing the depiction of a gentle dove Guided to the entrance of the Festival of Love All the people gathered for the summertime event Pleased to know that charity was where its money went Long haired bands performed warm anthems, jangling away Children sacrificed their rides to let the needy play Neighbours set aside their feuds to tearfully embrace Even dogs for cats put on a sympathetic face Creditors forgave their debtors, young held hands with old Teachers for the poorest grade refused to even scold Politicians heeded voters, bosses thanked their staff Businessmen who never smiled broke into a laugh Women glided topless, wearing skirts of floral hue Offering their kisses to the men who loved them true Never more contagious was the spirit of good cheer But perhaps for Yuletide, at the closing of the year The impressive schedule would brightly culminate With the birthday of an orphan fit to celebrate Portions of the current cake were cut and passed around Heedless of a burning candle fallen on the ground As the birthday music thundered to a jam packed stand Fire first appeared as an illusion of the band When the wise performers dropped their instruments and fled Suddenly the calm, collected mass misplaced its head Straight towards the nearest exit, in a heated rush Did the former friends proceed to lagging neighbours crush Terrorized by danger pushing out in flaming licks Runners stooped to exercise the dirtiest of tricks Children were compelled to make up for their smaller size Clinging to the backs of brutes and clasping hands on eyes Rendering dependent for directions through the dark That they might be safely carried outside to the park Women feigned distress to bring the men down to a slow Then retreating from the spot, to front of throng would go As the child bearers, they considered it their right To escape a conflagration any way they might Teachers fashioned torches, with an appetite to learn The persuasive power of a second layer burn Elderly were swept aside and tossed into a pile As the youth advanced in an inexorable file Businessmen used sidearms a new passage out to scare Politicians teleported to a secret lair Dogs and cats went back to fighting, nothing left to lose Helicopters capturing the mayhem for the news No more birthdays for the orphan caught in the stampede To get past his body had his consciousness been freed So much for fraternity, the will to love and share Up against survival, it had never had a prayer VI: The Ghost In a search for lyrics that inspired him to sing Did the hermit scan the archives of the great Sun King Which alluded to a certain royal concubine With an air depicted as more sparkling than wine For her affectations had the king become so keen Naturally, she'd provoked the ire of the queen Who'd engaged professionals to terminate the threat Of a usurpation by the best contender yet Earliest convenience for the practice of foul play Surfaced at a tournament of championship croquet With the bearing of his mallet foremost on his mind To the lady's disappearance, Louis would be blind Someone slipped a grain of fatal poison in her snuff For accomplishing its purpose, one sniff was enough Straightaway, the corpse was transferred to an unmarked site Priest prevented from administering the last rite Terrified, the witnesses would whisper not a breath To disclose the shameful truth about her sudden death They said that she'd caught the plague en route to Albany Whence her body was consigned to burial at sea Disallowed the blessing of a priest, she lingered on Though she'd hidden from the portal until it was gone Knowing that she hadn't treated underlings so well And afraid a punishment awaited her in hell Centuries of drawing on the insights of a ghost Gave her a clear reckoning of what she wanted most Matter unto matter may exclusively belong But she still could profit from a well constructed song What the hermit fashioned from his solitary woe Traveled out in waves for the invisible to know By his secret tribute to the woman from the past He'd been inadvertently into her clutches cast Much as his song threatened to attract a living bride She would make short work of any women who replied Scaring them with warning cries or steering them astray Causing them to items of significance mislay As the common music lover's mood received a lift To a state of melancholy he began to shift With the spirit feeding on the impulse of his ache Hoping that his will to live might for their pairing break Sympathetic birds chirped out a sonorous refrain Having means to compliment his elegant quatrain Taking as an asset to the music of the wood Bitter lamentations of a lonely hermithood At such times, he came to see his talent as a curse Since it only ever made his situation worse Sharpening his senses for a self directed knife Driving him to daydreams of a better afterlife VII: The Plane Planners for the auto-route looked down upon their scheme Modelled in the miniscule proportions of a dream And exchanged suggestions of the way they should proceed Through an area that was so obstinately treed Having quite exhausted the conventional technique Radical developers were called upon to speak One of whom proposed a tactic wonderfully rare That of an approach from the outflanking open air Armed with deadly buckets of incendiary gas An airplane could penetrate in one efficient pass Work could then commence securely on the broken ground With no breeding places for the insects left around Gentlemen across the floor to this plan gave their ayes And collaborated to at once it realize They possessed a reservoir of strong defoliant Wide enough for planes to scoop from like a cormorant Most of the discussion had been closely overheard By a vigilant and unobtrusive little bird With a major staple of its diet under threat It beat its small wings back home as fast as it could get At a crucial conference with philosophic fowl Did the spy intrude on an astonished Marshal Owell Tweeting unreservedly the bulletin of dread To the venerable senior military head They could still be saved as long as time was not too short By a raid of crack commandos engineered to thwart Sabotage committed by the lustre of the moon Would demand the technical finesse of a raccoon Four were airdropped on the runway where the bomber sat Just as all the lights were turned off, landing rather pat Stealthily they crept towards their stationary mark Whites of eyes protruding out from visors in the dark Straight into the cockpit did the mission chief ascend On the shoulders of the rest who stood watch to defend Underneath the cover of the navigation board Fingers went to work rerouting an important cord With the panel to its former aspect reinstalled Back into the forest were the brave raccoons recalled Without confirmation it was difficult to guess If their operation had resulted in success Morning sun accompanied a loud propeller's drone Which at first as panic struck the creatures to the bone Up until it sharply veered away from slaughter's course Back along a line in the direction of its source Then, at last, the distant rising of a white hot plume Let them know their enemy had met again with doom Almost as impressive as the sun upon the sea Was his reservoir of compounds, incandescently VIII: The Riot In the prison workshop, there were many skills to learn To persuade an inmate to an honest living earn And since Suzie's weaving basket had been seized away An instructor showed her how to spin a pot from clay From the very outset, she was able to produce Apple shaped containers for her pomegranate juice Straying from example to let manifest her flair In the composition of some bold new tableware Pepper shakers looked like mushrooms, mugs resembled stumps Sugar bowls had hearts on them to measure out the lumps Plates were turned to lily-pads, refreshingly askew As the master potter made her dazzling debut This appeared for her to be a favourable turn Keeping her from weaving was the warden's main concern And her spirit, with her hands upon the spinning wheel Was as lifted as her weaving ever made her feel Suzie's next-door neighbour at the penitentiary Had just spent an interval at the infirmary None of the receptacles in which they served his food Had a healthy impact on his miserable mood She gave him a special mug to welcome him back home Lidded with a happy face that bulged out like a dome It was perfect to reduce the swelling in his jaw Helping him to smile and to stabilize his straw At the cafeteria, the man exposed his prize Of whose acquisition brought his peers to fantasize Flooding his young benefactor with acute requests For the kind of cup that they could show off to their guests By this time, her wares were piled over three shelves high From which it was possible to ev'ryone supply Trays of prison food received a total overhaul Seen as an improvement by consumers, overall Then a lazy dishwasher resentfully complained Of how ill placed pockets caused his fingers to be strained Suzie's crazy cups were more than regimen could stand And were duly deemed as a kaolin contraband This was answered by a grumble clear from cell to cell As is heard from those about to openly rebel Sure enough, the first inspection to impound the barred Finished with a hostage taking and an injured guard Fuelled by the victory, an all-out riot spread By the girl's most noted and devoted patrons led After the negotiator heard the captives' case He repeated what they told him to the warden's face The reviled order would be put into reverse To prevent the situation from becoming worse And with ending threats of further outbreaks as the goal Suzie was accepted for immediate parole IX: The Host On the AM dial for the motorists to tune Was a program broadcast through the weekday afternoon Styled as a talk show of contemporary fare Hosted by the most compelling presence on the air A religious firebrand, evocative of speech Able to believers in remotest corners reach He was always looking for another ear to bend Certain that the world would soon be coming to an end Prophecy's professor and astrology's adept Influenced profoundly the direction that he stepped And the latest breakthroughs at deciphering the code Were among the items that he regularly showed The abrupt appearance of a comet in the night Brought his doomsday apprehensions to a newfound height Through the mighty dishes would his panic multiply Intercepted by antennas his address to spy As malignant 'Wormwood' of Apocalyptic fame Did the preacher take to be the interloper's name Soon to follow would the great calamities begin And the execution of the penalty for sin Traffic turned to chaos on the cluttered thoroughfare Lifelong wishes to fulfill without a bit to spare While the survivalists' aversion to the grave Drove them as a flock to take their chances in the cave Trading on the stock exchange unfathomably fell Values of commodities impossible to tell Only in their churches did the population trust Waiting tensely for the world to crumble into dust Scientists attempted to anxieties allay With a calculation to predict a path away Then the object unexpectedly adjusted course Hurtling towards the earth with terrifying force For the inexplicable and eerie fireball Wasn't just a comet or a shooting star at all But a vessel from a distant heavenly domain With an army vast enough to flood the Terran plain Humans had possessed the earth for longer than was due Now the time had come for the command of someone new Natural prosperity had only gone to waste On a race of troglodytes afflicted with bad taste Fit for heavy labour in Utopia's ascent Would they abdicate to an unearthly government Rational enough to undertake what they are told Would they aptest excavate great quantities of gold Slowing to a halt above the urban scenery Helped restore the frightened to their past serenity Fiery apocalypse was not upon them yet Outcomes undecided and too soon on which to bet X: The Weapon Overlooking happenings from safe atop his peak For a fast solution the recluse began to seek To repel this enemy in one decisive blow He was just about prepared at any lengths to go Still remaining in his den from his most bitter days Was a weapon great enough the mighty craft to raze One that on humanity he'd since declined to use Now without a better choice, he reinstalled its fuse It rose to its purpose with a disconcerting hum To the angle that would bring its range to maximum He would need to redirect its eager blinking tip At the points of weakness it detected in the ship Had the world's armadas all at once severely struck Up against the heavy hull, they would have had no luck Only from the trials of his isolated past Had destructive power ever grown to such a blast At his side, his grim admirer gathered up the scene For the moment, she'd allow him leave to intervene As a spirit, she knew she would make the perfect spy So towards the target did she dutifully fly She attempted access through the tiles in the roof But the strange material was somehow spirit-proof Up and down she tramped in fury, making not a sound Breaking through a layer weakened by incoming round Unseen by the aliens, she surveyed for a clue As to where her escapades would the most damage do Following the arrows to their energy array Where she brought her talents into devastating play The explosion caused a great disruption in the field That effectively had acted as their outer shield Pouncing on the opening, the great gun sharply spit And won recognition with a penetrating hit Loss of levitation brought a deep resounding thud As the vessel sunk just like a bottle in the mud Its resources were diverted quickly to subdue That which unbelievably had overwhelmed its crew Lashing out in desperation, they returned the shot Vaporizing the offending weapon on the spot Now their operation would depart from what was planned As to travel overland was given the command Stricken, their leviathan extended metal jaws Out through which poured legions to continue on their cause Mechanized beyond our means to readily repel Like a fog upon the scape, their ranks began to swell Powerless against the host, the ghost to man returned And was pleased to see that her beloved had not burned Any more resistance seemed unlikely to arise Conquest by celestial foe a fact to realize XI: The Planet: Most adjoining wildlands had fallen to a hush Laying bare the rustle of the breeze upon the rush Not by any order or official bulletin But by a survival program, guiding from within Ever since the space intruders touched the atmosphere Continental countermoves had gone into high gear By the planet an infection had been clearly sensed Which its forces were inclined to all align against Though the animals knew not for whom they lay in wait Any foe on less than fours was fit for them to hate From the human enemy they'd finally been saved By no other predator would they now be enslaved Mother Nature had arisen to assume control Her instructions felt across the ecosystem whole Animal and element, responding each in turn On a common mission to sustain a solid spurn Absolutely quiet and uncomfortably still Acting in accordance with the planetary will As the sky began to darken, creatures braced for rain Organized to hurl itself against the wayward train Presently a vicious tempest cast its gusty net Catching flyers by the fleet, with no escape route let As a deluge fell upon the vehicles below Wheels completely pointless in the paralyzing flow Balls of electricity converged, with fearsome might Overloading circuit boards and setting them alight By the time the elements had finished with their mark Its machine dependents had been thrust into the dark Then emerged from countless broken boxes on the beach Figures guaranteed to make a growler want to screech Choosing only two legs had been by the baddest done But these upstarts dared to hop about on only one Snakes were first to take advantage, springing in a coil Tripping skippers in mid-step to crash down on the soil Elks commenced to bulldoze, with their antlers' paths to shave On the way to seal the captives soundly in a cave Porcupines adroitly infiltrated from behind Or, at least, as those who tried to sit were sure to find Albatrosses bombed with boulders, insects put up flak The entire population joined in the attack With the column decimated, victory led on For as long as it still moved, the menace was not gone Pressing in from all around to motion all but cease Beast was almost ready to believe he'd won the peace Suddenly a fierce eruption rose up in their core And a holdout stood before them, 25-foot-4 In its tentacle it held a powerful device In its eye the look of one who's through with being nice XII: Super Suzie Punitive incarceration leaves a person prone Utterly depleted from the ages spent alone When she served her sentence for her run-in with the stores One day someone offered Suzie a nice trip outdoors She consented eagerly and lightly stepped aboard For a journey to a clinic, health to be restored Sponsored by the military, who hoped soon to gain Knowledge of how best to train for combat of the brain Without her awareness, as she sat upon a chair Head embedded in the dome they had for drying hair Microscopic hardware was inserted secretly To increase the level of her mental energy Shortly after her release, a friend gave her a book On the wonders of the mind we often overlook She'd since in her concentration learned that she could trust Having found no obstacle that she could not combust She was making things move for her cat out in the yard Just before this crisis that had hit her world so hard And had managed, through the waves of pandemonium To maintain a constant state of equilibrium After the reversal of the foe's alarming rise Panic cleared the battlefield for death defying eyes So the giant faced her, with its weapon, taking aim Which it might be possible to heat into a flame She sent forth a burst of thought which centred on its box As its holder cried in pain, it broke against the rocks Catching the attention of the hateful with her dare Put herself directly in the shadow of its stare Sinewy retaliation instantly occurred Never had a young girl's scream been quite so keenly heard Taken by the ankle in a slithering advance And dragged off against her will to where she had no chance Squirming like a captive worm, she could not break the grip Of what had arrested her and wrapped around her hip Holding her an arm's length from what might have been a toe In a spot where she'd not see where thought waves ought to go Giving in to primal urge, she kicked with all her strength Going to what would appear to be a pointless length Yet a certain quiver ran across the looming frame As if it had just been tickled to the point of shame This encouraged further kicking, on a hope absurd Which provoked a giggle that might drive away a herd With the kind of system not designed for feeling good Monster crumbled to a heap where it had vainly stood Out of an injustice sprang the hero of the age One whose name would with the hermit's share an honoured page Liberty, however, had been saved much less by skill Than by the persistence of the freedom lover's will THE END
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© 2007, 2018. Verses by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.