The Giant Killer

The fires consume me

I can see the red
The maniacal laugh and malicious
       grins on their faces
The beady eyes
And the fires consume me
Fallen brothers and sisters lay
       beside me
Victims of their own seduction
But beyond the menacing faces
I see warriors on top of a hill
All in armor with battle scars
       and hard faces
Each of them hold the hair of 
       severed, mangled heads of 
       giants they have slain
Some hold many heads
Some have heads piled at their 
       feet
Then I notice something
I look at these maniacal faces
       before me
These evil, confident, laughing 
       faces
And I imagine wiping off the 
       laughing look and replacing it
       with fear
Then the faces look just like the
       heads at the feet of the 
       champions, my brothers and
       sisters
Defeated, dead faces that look as
       though they were filled with 
       terror when the sinews
       attaching their head to their
       body were severed
Crescent grins and laughing mouths
Bleeding, mangled, terrified with 
       jaw hanging loose
Beady red eyes filled with victory 
       and malice and sadism
Dead eyes rolled back, yellow 
       with rot

A sister tosses one giant's head at 
       my feet
"You have the power!" she shouts

And the fires consume me

Seeing through red eyes
I do not laugh
I do not smile
Clinching my teeth
The fires consume me
Then, like a volcanic eruption, I
       scream at them in horrific,
       focused anger and terribly 
       purposeful fury
Drawing my sword in a moment,
       the sound of sharp, sliding 
       metal ripples through the air
I charge in a split second
And I see the terror on the face
Moments before I slice off the head
The mangled, bleeding head rolls on
       the ground
I pick it up by the hair and raise it 
       high
Pointing my sword at the others,
       I say "You're next"
The limp body falls to the ground
I swing with deadly accuracy and
       violent rage
When the last giant is slain,
I stand with sword drawn

And the fires consume me

Wild cheers erupt from the hill
       above!
I march up the hill to join my 
       brethren
I look out on the valley below
And see a brother staring at his
       giant
I toss one of the heads at his feet
"You have the power!" I shout

And the fires consume him

7-5-14