That pierce the air and armour, skin and bone;
Once deep inside, I ditch my deathly ride,
Spread dark destruction, quell life’s fragile wick.
*
I cleave to sharpened shards of stainless steel
That separate the living from the dead.
A scratch, a nick, a cut will let me in
To fester in the ragged bloodied meat.
*
I steal by roadsides, lakesides, seasides, waiting
For unwary or foolhardy souls
To cast their fleshy vehicles in my flow –
Cold corpses crushed and broken by the tides.
*
Secreted in air, water, oil and blood,
Then drawn to life’s sweet heat, I bathe and bask,
Divide and multiply and overrun;
Corruption boiling, bursting from within.
*
I stow away in Love’s soft arrow tip –
My favourite secret deadly trick is this –
And strike the body, mind and soul with one shaft,
Wreak my havoc by a lover’s stray hand.
*
