Purgatory

A confession from the watcher under the willow.

I watch you from the window

and I can't help but think

It looks like you're in limbo

You were lying with your face in your pillow

Your breathing shallow

As I stood

Watcher under the willow

I swore I caught the scent

I must confess

It smelled like brimstone

I saw the empty bottles

and I swore I heard the gospel

Nowhere to be found

Then I saw you sit up in your bed

and although you had shifted your bones

It looked like you were already dead

Your eyes met mine

It seemed like you didn't know

Whereupon I gazed into those pools of woe

Until they turned away

You started to leave the room

and I knew I had to follow you

I crawled in through the window

and I caught the foul of ashtray cinder

I watched you rush to the bathroom

and I heard you through the walls

Vomiting only ethanol

Scorching your throat

and turning your organs to ash

I could feel myself

Following the sounds

Until I saw you lying there

With your head on the ground

I saw your medicine cabinet

With the doors open wide

That's when I noticed

Not one bottle remained untried

You sat up and reached into the cupboard

Jaded

With a thirst to satisfy

I watched you

As you tipped back the bottle

and you were touching lips

It was a kiss of death

and I saw you enchanted

As you embraced the abyss

I thought about stopping you

But I found it to be cold

Because I am your ghost

I am your home

Reviews

[Alessander]

"I watched you rush to the bathroom

and I heard you through the walls

Vomiting only ethanol

Scorching your throat

and turning your organs to ash"

Visceral. You do a great job of setting the tone with detail and rhythm. And the rhymes are just fun. They keep the flow going.

And you lured me in with the mysterious figure. Wasn't sure if it was the devil, a friend, a dream or vision...it's like a fugue or sleepwalking...a bit surreal, which is cool

Through it all a sombre undertone, and what I perceive to be a suicide and the haunting that goes with it, which unfortunately, I know all to well.

Anyhow, I dig the darker stuff, so here I am lol

Great write.

[Esoterica]

Honestly, I REALLY love this review! It is indeed a suicide and it is also the haunting that goes with it. The poem follows the theory that time is relative, that everything is happening at once. The watcher is both the ghost and the observed. Thank you for taking the time!!

[Alessander]

Np. I really did enjoy it. Then again, I'm rather macabre lol

Look forward to your other works.

[Pete]

a walk on the dark side. creatively woven with strong, sinister imagery. lots of eerie tension throughout. good, solid, creative, disturbing, unexpected write ...

[Ivory]

Very dark, descriptive piece. Unlike anything I have read recently.
I must say it is very well written.