Online bullying is hot topic on the social networks at present. Particularly with mental health so high on the worldwide agenda. The following write and its companion piece, Six in the Chamber, challenge such, in a way that refuses to pander to the needs of the few for whom bloodlust is insatiable. I share it in the hope that it may inspire just one soul who has been subjected to similar attacks on the most transparent of platforms.

 

Love to all—to all, Do Love

 

Richard Charles Stevens

 

 

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Shinedown “Devil”

 

 

 

 

tattle tales and force ten gales
cattle trails and epic fails
no smoke without fire they say
with deadpan smile and beds ablaze
best to let them get their way
have their say and play their games
claim their hollow victories
and excavate their narrow veins

 

bad blood spilled
all eyes on kill
seeking undemanding thrill
set to destroy
setting dummy decoys
yet for all of their ploys
i discern mere white noise
there was a time when my blood would have chilled
until life revealed me a say
stay and play dismembered toy
or simply turn away
rather remaster my destiny than request an extension to desperate fate
sooner let rumoured suggestion impress upon those who possess nothing left but blind hate
had i been marie antionette
then i would have said “let them eat cake”
but i would prefer not to give them a taste of disgrace they already decided to take

 

all in the name of parading as victors
staking false claim on a shady invictus
making it plain they were right all along
when the bittersweet truth is they’re frightfully wrong
spreading lies stretched out as wide as they’re long
hiding truths left out to dress down birthright to belong
the judge and the jury
of crude execution
rudely awakened to shameful solution
buckling beneath the weight of their own constitution
bolstered by claim hell hath fury

 

luring their prey
to unchartered domain
where they flay open arteries
feast upon bones
digging the marrow
with listless eyes narrowed
humourless gallows of shallow repose
nightmares walking
talking smack
bullies from the schoolyard make a comeback
cutting no slack to the facts they extract from the black heart of those who retract their own prose
everything is calculated
worked out to the letter
all of us are damaged goods
but some of us know better
some of us do love, you know
it’s not all that unheard of
tell that to the milk between their toes next time it curdles
either that or jump through hoops
and get snagged up in hurdles
while i run wild and free
released from temporary girdle

 

i do not feel the need, you see
for justifying needlessly
a character i know full well
is long dispelled indecency
a gentleman, by all accounts
and there are those who openly agree with me
we live and learn
and i learned young the wrong in harming grievously
turned a corner
did so blindly
long forewarned of that behind me
found a warm glow
deep inside me
found the peace so callously denied me
wish to make it known that woe no longer so betides me
bad blood spilled
all eyes on kill
yet, keeper out of sight and mind
somewhere else entirely
famed inspiringly, in kind

 

 

 

 

Richard Charles Stevens

 

Keeper of The Crimson Quill

 

 

 

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