All Souls

I have no fear of joining the great gathering, that great gathering of all souls

To join the spirits of the quickened and felled, both those of the young and the old

For the reaper is a callous dealer and is no respecter of high station or place

Fame nor fortune buys his mercy and will not stave off his relentless chase

A King of peace can be viciously murdered; a small-town boy can be mercilessly lynched

A dose of medicine can be doubled and your fate shall be irreversibly cinched

An ill fate abides for the preachers of love, as well for the prophets of pain

Be assured that idolaters shall be randomly spared, while the innocents shall be needlessly slain

Should you doubt his random nature, observe the body of the poisoned priest

While the reaper spares the life of the child, bearing the prophesied mark of the beast

From out of the earth arise the tortured corpses, from the blood drenched killing fields

While obfuscators and confidence men continue to tantalize and cut their crooked deals

The dutiful nun in the cloister prays in vain and dies with her doubts unrequited

Yet outside of the order the whores scarlet lecheries keep lust’s fiery flames ignited

Your tears upon their graves are a puzzlement; fore your fate may prove to be far worse

The dead have made their final reckoning and they know that sweet death is no curse

For most their release from this realm is a comfort, the certitude of death brings them peace

Still some tortured souls who knew not virtue, still long for worldly gains and increase

While those who perished in service, live on through golden deeds and true love

Fore their illuminated souls have ascended the heights and fill evils void from above