The Oligarch

A poem I wrote parodying "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe for Honors English 11.

I walked a quiet, lonely road, pondering my heart’s heavy load,
Heavy, like the groaning of iron bells in a funeral mark"
Heavy, like one who has lost his beloved, like he who has been shoved.
For my blood has disowned me, and now none shall hear me, not even a lark;
Even Earth chooses to forget me, to entomb me in its dark.
Death, life’s lone oligarch.

As I approach the end of the lane, I turn and watch the moon wane,
Vanishing behind clouds, just as I vanished from all call and hark.
None have remembered me, for no one has made my requested plea"
The plea to cremate my body and spread the ashes on Ganges’ stark
Shore"to be washed away with her current and to join with the sharks.
Death, life’s lone oligarch.

Finally, I turn and look at the door in front, dark as a moor,
Which has never been tread through, always having within it night’s black.
Cautiously and slowly, I reach my hand out, pulling it decidedly,
Opening the door to the last journey which I will take; no lark,
No fiend, no parent can stop me. I enter, finally to embark
Death, life’s lone oligarch.

Now inside my eternal abode, I slowly draw the door closed.
Squinting these eyes of mine, I gaze upon the light like a monarch
Examining his armies, scrutinizing their strength and detailing
His next attack. For my turn has come to dazedly disembark
This ship of Life and enter Hades’ Kingdom and take a long walk:
Death, life’s lone oligarch.

I approach Hades’ Palace, accepting my fate, this eternal date.
Bowing to him, I lay my life in front of him to judge my mark
On the world and maybe send me to live as Elysium’s draftee.
He said, “You have lived a grim life but are of imperial stock.
May you forever live as a shade in Asphodel’s night and dark.”
Death, life’s lone oligarch.