In the Land of the End

In this field of flowers,
breathing in their fragrance...

I do not know what kind they are,
they're up to my knees.

Rainbow petals,
centers lit with light,
like a carpet from heaven.

I walk within them.
They bend away from my boots,
as if sensing my intruding steps.

Bees buzz
busily over this hillside.
I'm in another world,
or else I'm in a dream.

Birds glide,
white doves entwined with black ravens,
singing tunes of doom and escape.

I trudge forward up a hill,
realizing my holster is empty.

My helmet left far behind
in a deep crater,
pitted face of earth,
salty sweat and tears
hiding in the folds of continents.

All of my friends are dead.
None of them wanted to grow old.
But I think they were lying,
now
eyeballs staring into a mash of lowering clouds.
I swallow hard
blinking them out of my mind.

Reaching the top of the crest,
a toxic smell rising from the other side...
I look below to scarred battlefields
stretching into each other.
Century into century,
iron and rubber and bones and blood...

Every country that's ever been
has been kicked
stomped
full of sins...

Twist of time continually
leading

in the land of the end.

Sunlight of Summer

So cold,
messed-up moment
even in the sunlight of summer.

No other way to go.
Standing here
long time made in the coming
answers...

Whispers
loosening my lips,
wanting to scream, but holding it in.

I dare not look behind me,
being followed by an unseen force.

Hearing words
I don't understand,
but somehow the meaning digs deep.

We have been foolish...

Searching
for where few can hide
in new fields blanketed with seeds...

A vast covering too far to see,
fingertip horizon of green,
even in the swamp of winter.

Roots spreading,
living onward
beneath our tramping feet...

Always a gathering...

The final stand,
backed by the everlasting.

---

Stephen Jarrell Williams loves to stay up all night and write with lightning bolts until they fizzle down behind the dark horizon.  He was editor of Dead Snakes, UFO Gigolo, and Calvary Cross.  He can be found on Twitter as papapoet.

If you would like to be part of The Chamber Magazine family, follow this link to the submissions guidelines. If you like more mainstream fiction and poetry with a rural setting and addressing rural themes, you may also want to check out Rural Fiction Magazine.