Death seeks you on storm-battered wings,
Snapping like the shredded sails of spectral ships.
Under blood red skies I hear the sighs
Of wraiths that wail through me like wind.
I crave the lullaby that is a hail of teeth,
The tolling of bells and lightning whip-crack,
Thunder’s hollow boom echoing across the sea
And waves of bodies crashing onto the quarterdeck.
Against scarlet skies I see corpses in the clouds,
The gore-drenched shrouds of stained cotton
I envelop you in from stem to stern,
Wringing from the veil a spattering, bloody rain.
I savor the tang of blooded metal, tasting copper
From the coins I kissed into your dead mouth,
And now you will voyage alone in your boat grave
Into the underworld, crossing the swollen Styx;
In your passage you’ll pay for your sins against me
And Death will plunder you for the last time,
His tongue prying the pennies from your rotting throat.
I delight in these red skies, without mourning.
