An ode to those who suffered persecution from the judgemental's.
The list is so sad.
So proud things have changed.
Salute.
The unholy of all blackest pits
filled with bitter but with still sometimes sweet-tasting human emotions
Illuminated by the flickering half glow of this fading miners lantern
Sat by my burning coal fire at four am
I write these few words down for future inspiration
To encourage me
Before I flee to try to get through whenever
I feel the need to subdue the sharp pang of my apotheosis of my only friend
With dangerous malt whiskey
The one who ritually visits who I call Mr Damnation
For to be able to hear you whisper
So be it again
I'd be driven crazy
As I caress your precious velvety memories like a familiar shadow and admit to that grim-faced shadow of a human
My own perpetual stalker
Who's staring back at me in this faded old black mirror
Whispering that I should try to carry on
As I think back to those happier times with her
When we might have had a chance to be optimistic like so many other cross bearers
But just like every third rosy couple
Who met and tried to stay together
While wading knee-deep
in newly discovered rivers of uncertainty
Through trial and error
We were tragically pursued by the real broken phoney emotional stirrers
Those two-faced ones living in painted white houses
With twitching grey curtains made of out cheap lace to hide their judgemental faces
Those who deem themselves to be The Beautiful Ones in society
The polished and the preened
Strutting about with all their treacherous airs and graces
Just to be seen
We were unjustly discriminated against by feverish lions
Those sad losers
Who deemed our liaison
To be tainted and under their covetous judgemental eyes
To be on so many levels
Immorally corrupted and dangerously fragmented
But to you, my beloved Ophelia
Now erroneously judged
Likened to a corrupt 17th-century museum
Filled with pagan occult pictures
By a cancel culture fuelled by heathen convictions
My soon-to-be obsolete heart still sings
As it remembers those wild crazy days and passion-filled nights
When we stood firm and issued
All those endless FUs with such excitement and unbreakable rage
How we then ran away from Deep Dale
With anything, we could muster and carry
Caught a flight North and got married
Went to Las Vegas
Booked into The Bellagio
Cruised the Strip and made wild drunken oaths
To each other that we'd never be tempted to go back
No matter what news or stories we heard
Broadcasted over the TV or radio
I hope tonight
As I close my eyes for maybe the last time
As my lifelong friend
Doc Dupont says my last prayers and rites
If you didn't know I guess it's time to confess
You were always my life’s
True one and only
And I truly understand why you left so suddenly to be with them
For it's not easy trying to live with the news
Of both of your parent's sudden deaths
Even though after all these years since you've been gone
After visiting your grave every Monday
My heart still skips a beat
For I know my love channelled
through my treasured memories
Will soon
To you flow so damn easily
Reuniting you with those incredible few years
When we escaped to The Bellagio
And lived together
For a short while to renew
Free from the long reach of The Beautiful Ones
So peacefully in every way
And now as I reflect
I never knew lonely until I lost you but soon we'll be together
For Manzoni
The Italian novelist and poet appeared one supernatural dark night
And told me
Everything will be alright
And soon banners carried proudly into the 21st Century will carry your fight
(C)
Copyright John Duffy