The Obelisk: Parts I to V

I've made more small changes to some of my older verses to accommodate my new ones. The more I phrase, the more I have to rephrase. And yet, there's only one good phrase to say how this poem is turning out: fuckin' excellent! It takes eight to twelve hours of constant application to produce each portion of thirty-two rhyming couplets for this large work. It's a trying job that no one on TV or in the movies wanted to do, but the results are worth it to me - and hopefully to you. I: The Iconoclasts To lofty shore the gods were brought To judge the war the mortals fought That started with a vulgar slight Against a due religious rite A statue had been madly hewn To pieces small and widely strewn And that the idol be appeased A string of amber mines were seized To cause a statue's face to cave Was an offence considered grave One dare not force indignity Upon a blameless deity And yet the voice of the maligned Expected from within their kind Did not in curses crime condemn But in a hush eluded them With Love had War gone straight to bed They noticed not a thing, they said No trouble came to Wisdom's thought And Justice heard no thump nor shot Talent had produced a show From Vulcan's steady hammer blow Among the injured there were none Throughout the total Pantheon The tarnished figure would be odd Or more than likely not a god To Gaia turned their spanning eye To catch the liar in the lie And found a temple plus a trove That first had served to honour Jove Devoted to a faith unknown In he who claimed the mortal throne A closer look had changed their path Away from cataclysmic wrath For making hard to fools exalt The mighty council found no fault The wiser choice for favouring Must be the kingdom neighbouring Where truth and honour may remain Beyond the madman's awful reign Continued probing would reveal The mishap was a front to steal A fortune did the ruler owe To pay his troops to battle go His thirst for plunder left unchecked Would leave the temples robbed and wrecked The tyrant's name, which came of late Was aptly Moribund the Great Opposing, on the side of right The Prefect of the Lands of Light Considered what would be the cost Of his top secret message lost For progress had his people raced And foes with lesser weapons chased But unlike hordes they faced before Their neighbours knew their arts of war A shadow did the sibyls cast With casualties that numbered vast Should now the wrongful war be won By this most evil Moribund And so the gods put their resource To help the prefect stay the course His nemesis's fearsome rise Would overrun him otherwise II: The Lovers The tyrant had a daughter fair Inclined to pity and to care Patrolling through the worst lines drawn She served the hurt and woebegone To uniform she paid no heed But focused on her patient's need And once Ophelia's top one Was Mark, the prefect's eldest son The men around her wouldn't dare Disturb a single royal hair She felt her youth reduced to waste The blossom of her life debased The fury of her father's law Obstructed callers she could draw But in the foreign eye she found No fear of dark oath firmly bound Her daddy's loyal concubine Had thought it fair to reassign To fierce disputed frontal row Where one's survival's odds were low Thus freely did the princess roam Among the haters of her home And pine for a romantic spell With he who had against her fell When Mark she found severely hit Ophelia was by him smit Discovering before the rest In time to have him rightly dressed She tore the shirt that wrapped his arm To make it look as come to harm The doctor found him fit to save And two weeks leave to mend he gave Ophelia's disarming grin Belied the peril Mark was in But of his new lot she advised And of her own she too apprised By passion they were swept away Where goddesses held strongest sway And from their longing to be near They plotted both to disappear The times her father came to call His grunts would echo through the hall His shadow cast a form profane With right hand clinging to a cane Before his glare the righteous froze A constant threat to spy expose And soon as Mark was on his feet He'd make his getaway complete The morning of the big parade The nurse with patients visits made And customary for her rounds Wheeled wounded soldiers through the grounds Her favourite she'd had the sense To park the closest to the fence And on the cymbal's loudest clash The two began a wild dash Though from the law they plainly fled Of followers they drew ahead And to the hills were safe to go As marching caused a traffic slow Amid thick trees they huddled wet And waited for the sun to set Then braved a mountain's rugged trail Enduring to proclaim their tale III: The Obelisk The clung to object Mark mistook As just a cane was more a hook A wizard's work, it put command Completely in its holder's hand As pieces on a playing board Would forces move in full accord From caravan to tallest ship They'd feel the pressing icy grip The tidings of the couple's flight Arrived to Moribund at night His busy arm began to shake And all around they felt the quake In order to avenge the breach He needed to extend his reach Out went his armies as a wave Against the few but fiercely brave His whole attention he would turn Against his daughter's bitter spurn His grenadiers were sent to free The places she was said to be But always were the lucky pair At final moment made aware And able to adjust their trip So their pursuer got the slip His juggernaut carved out a road As far as it could drag its load In regions deep and yet to tame The raiders pushed to triumph claim While straight behind them sternly stood To guard the valley of the good Their master's rod's antagonist The bold and mystic obelisk Though pan-dimensional in span The obelisk was made by man Projected from its metal mast A potent and decisive blast Its rotors spun the day and hour To furnish it with glowing power A clever and imposing spike Its sting could any target strike Ophelia and Mark were sure To into ambush armies lure Where lacked the room to turn around The prefect's troops would foe surround The father thought it ill advised To have Mark further jeopardized But now the smooth and cunning ploy Would Moribund the Great destroy Into the ring the wayward crossed Too far from home and clearly lost When from behind the challenge roared And out of hiding free men poured Descending on the hapless swarm As though the most ferocious storm To demonstrate what freedom's worth And raze the quarry to the earth The strongest blow that made the day Originated faraway By bearings added to the list Of targets for the obelisk A gaping crater, singed and stained Were all that of the bad remained But soon as postures stood to slack The ground shook and the sky went black IV: The Beast When Moribund had failure seen His host eradicated clean A tremor from his angry swing To cavern burst an opening Exposing ray of sun from sky Inducing prisoner to fly And back into the air released A thing known only as the beast Designed to wreak a grievous toll And threaten populations whole Impervious to any fire Functions eons to expire Its maker must have lost control And had to trap it in a hole For lack of means to penetrate The substance of its armoured plate Mistaken for a second drive To keep the tyrant's name alive The apparition stronger grew As experts pondered what to do It spiralled high with cruel intent And to a panic people sent The predator whose engineer Conditioned it to prey on fear The borders of its deadly shroud Would rival the most stately cloud And wide the chaos that it made When on a fleeing throng it preyed From outstretched wings destruction rained As on the beast the sights were trained And marksmen stated with a frown That none of them could bring it down The beast retired every dawn Where seldom men had tread upon And overcome with lethargy Retired from its killing spree Deferring to tranquility The previous hostility No longer fit inside a scene Of meadows green and ponds pristine As soon as pointed to the spot The wonder weapon took a shot And in the fallout, target bathed But came out more or less unscathed A sneak attack so cowardly Affected its mood sourly And up it went to culprit track The treachery to answer back The battered troops received a break And set up camp along the lake The cursed thing was elsewhere turned A distant playground might be burned By carrier they sent a note To warn the settlers remote To keep their doors and windows closed And their dependents unexposed To save the world, the gods agreed That they would try to intercede And bring about a fair outcome Or better end, at least, than some Once advocates rose to negate The voice of the prevailing fate They sought the fiend who'd trouble made To see him tremble in the shade V: The Island Galapago, the island state Too far removed to heed the date Had up to now, from senseless ruin Remained essentially immune A self-contained society Allowed to flourish privately Its whereabouts were well apart From any port on any chart Her people, healthy and astute Were much inclined to fine pursuit In harmony with wind and tide For humankind's advance they tried Their living standard was above What most outsiders daydreamed of And long had they enjoyed their run Of trophies glinting in the sun With noble findings to impart In aid of science and of art Their able minds were in demand Beyond the borders of their land As such did they success attain As scholars fit to math explain And from their contemplations deep Proceeded the strategic leap But restless want to take up arms Was blotted out by island charms And spacious sea that lay between Provided an assuring screen A bastion of culture high Amid the regions gone awry Galapago's location stayed Unthinkable to chance invade The obelisk could alter space To hide its track without a trace When last its mark was seen at large It issued out a full discharge With each and every awesome blast Coordinates afield were passed Whence to assign the outward bound As elsewhere born to fight the round A bug alighted on a board Too critical to be ignored The operator with a swat Reversed the course the shot would plot So that its impact would be felt As starting from the island belt The path of doom was thereby bent Against the island innocent Amid the crowd that watched the meet Where acrobats in turns compete And panelists debated who The gold should be awarded to A child pointed to a fowl That grew into an all-out scowl Until beholders froze with dread At what hung grimly overhead The stoic judge implored aloud For calm behaviour from the crowd Though plainly challenged by a threat The outcome was not certain yet His vision of a bold way out Was by his colleagues not in doubt For this retired scientist Invented first the obelisk (to be continued)
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© 2016. Verses by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.