Conversation with the King

Its down to him and I.  Its the dead of night and neither of us are going anywhere.
He is resolved and I am willing. I call out to him,

"You speak to me in poems and songs,
but what about in the rusting,
in my crumbling community?
When we make attempts at piety
we trip and fall over each other.
Sober-hope is dry on the weekends.
When we forget all the lessons on righteousness,
When we look at the dead and wonder where the mercy was for them.
What about them?"

I put my cigarette out on our wood porch, as I avoid looking him in the eye. I've been tripping on the confusion in exhaustion. I've been thinking upon the memories of dying enemies. They were just poor men with rich friends. Rich friends with poorer souls still, they wouldn't be quiet as they covered their hearts with concrete. They've been in my prayers, I've been calling for revival in those woods
Ya know,
where all those men gathered round their money and drugs, burning their souls with country music and incense. Those men, who are laying out there now, sick of the taste of regret in the back of their throats, the drugs deepen the taste but alleviate the disdain.
What can I say, I was raised in those woods. I laid claim to my vice, I've stumbled upon the starbitten history of our dead culture. Hell, you could journey to say, they besieged the cities in my soul, crawling up in those caverns to take and capitalize on lies and feminine lines.

"THAT WAS OUR HOME." His words shot through my soul.
You are a temple my son, one in which I reside. I am your conductor, you cannot run off residual energies. Your Art will end up hollow and empty. That is the consequence of Isolation. You could wrap up yourself in a cocoon but I will not leave you hanging on a limb waiting for you to emerge. You are neither a moth or a monarch, and that transformation will not suit you well my friend.

I said "WOAH, WHAT ARE YOU SPEAKING ABOUT JESUS? IF I AM ALONE IN THIS, IF MY COMMUNITY HAS TAKEN TO THE GROUND, AND I AM SLEEPING ALONE WITH THESE THOUGHTS IN MY HEAD, WHAT SAY YOU THEN?"

He says, You are no criminal, if thats what your thinking. You did wrong kid, yeah. But your community isn't dead and neither am I. They are well and breathing and speaking life into you. You gotta take that truth and wrap in round you tight. Cause, like it or not, I died for you kid. You're made for me, whether its a love you can see, or a time to cry out in need. Take what you have here and build a home son.


Your pride isn't worth speaking out fear.
This cage isn't worth missing the cities I built.

We sat quietly together for a while as I thought on what he said. I turned to look at him and he was standing up. He looked me in the eye and said,

Get some sleep. We'll slay those monsters in the morning.