Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand

Honest and honorable the foresters claim

but a lie is put in their words, a trace of blame

One era past, then two and three rears its head

and since the end of the beginning

when near the heart they are struck dead

Cowards stain their hands in service of the stained hands

but since staining the heart, condemned themselves to one land

Strike from surprise or secret or afar

the foresters killed themselves by killing

a first era dragon in its last-years war

Now the shadow-hands skulk

in the shadow of a god-king

Now they hide in his city-ribs

safe from discovery

The god-king-city the evolution of their stained master

Unseen, the shadow-hands open the unwary neck

and hide behind parchment to escape their crimes

Unseen, the shadow-hands stab the unwatched back

and spin their malevolent webs

all for so-called honor

and a pitiful pile of hay

What grace, what skill they say

I rebut "What point has it

but to cheapen life already too cheap

but to put a last resort first in the mind

but to blacken a murderer's hand with death?"