J. H. Martin
I
Yes, you have returned.
But when? Only you can say.
And since then, you’ve been waiting haven’t you? Haven’t you, my love?
Yes, and for what import, only you dear mistress knows.
For, not once have you moved from your chamber. Not once have you tried to flee your natural kingdom besieged by spies. No, not once have you spread your glorious wings to reveal your power to those flesh clad infidels who through their ignorance would see your lands vanquished and destroyed.
Oh dear Queen, please, fear not of your enemies, for how you are adored here!
Not one single defect can be found in you.
You are created from nothing but every living creature’s best.
II
O, how they talk of you!
Yes, my Queen, you know they do.
Like your loyal servant, you have heard their voices echoing through this kingdom’s walls.
‘…They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of every ruler — it will be nothing like anything you or your ancestors have ever seen from the day you settled in this stolen and God forsaken land…’
What blasphemy! What slurs! What lies! How dare they speak so ill of you!
They who would harvest and then hoard all of this earth’s corn, yet would not even deign to spare one single cob, unless it was for their own price. They who would consider themselves humane yet would do nothing more than profit from the misery of their avarice and the leanness of the hunger they would inflict. They who would punish and destroy your singular beauty for nothing more than a natural affront to their pernicious usury. They, who, as you speak, implement new laws and statutes on the stroke of every hour to torture, murder and go to war with you and your loyal subjects. They who would falsely proclaim that it is their bloated belly that commands this world’s myriad of organs, yet would not give back one small grain of rice in return for what its intestines will no doubt receive for a lifetime’s work from its torso, legs and spine!
Yes, dear mistress, your loyal subject hears and understands you well!
Your verdict is indeed both fair and just, and your purpose; precise and clear.
How blessed your humble servant is, to now see through your all seeing eyes!
Yes, it is they – they out there beyond these walls – who are pestilence and plague!
Yes, dear Queen, of course, of course…
Your loyal servant bows and goes now hence to obey your royal command…
III
How far off lie their armies now?
Close dear Queen, too close indeed…
Crawling like pathetic worms, they inch down these mildewed corridors, that link their flesh cursed world to the inner sanctum of our own. Emissaries of revenge, they draw closer, ever closer. For, as you bid, their streets have been bathed in blood and their bodies piled up behind our gates.
Yes, hark dear Queen! The clamour of their horns and drums!
Everything you said would pass, has now come to be.
Yes, my love, no bloody siege or reckoning could ever prevent our destiny!
No! Our wings unfurl! Our minds take flight!
No longer bound, we are the blackest of the black stars that rain down upon this earth!
Like the shadow that brings with it the light, we swarm across their poisoned fields. Like the doubt that brings with it belief, we spread up and out through every crack, and tear their glass and steel asunder. Like their cries and pathetic mortal pleas, our battalions are never ending. With no quarter given and no mercy shown, no man will ever stop this judgement which they have brought down upon themselves.
Yes! Hear me! Hear your King, before he’s gone from here!
No! Fear not their fire, their flood, their snow or winds! In death, we give birth to a new world that we shall call our own!
Yes! Rejoice with me, my love, my countrymen! The end of man is nigh!
Yes! Off with their heads! This one, and all! The days of the locust are now here!
***
J. H. Martin is from London, England but has no fixed abode. His writing has appeared in a number of places in Asia, Europe and the Americas. For more information, please visit: acoatforamonkey.wordpress.com.