Shadow of the Echo

(To Mike, with regret.)

We were searching
For an echo;

no answer
to our sound
a voice that whispered evil,
a voice we finally found.

We thought we were singing do-wop,
two voices joined one,
and Satan let us mark harmonies,
until compassion and humanity were done.

You were so catchy;
I’d join your voice anywhere;
even dark caves
where bats sucked skull-blood
After tangling with your hair.

I’ll never know what I did wrong,
Though I think you hated every song
Led by me and from my creative mind;
how many partners have you found?
How many times have you left them hopeless

and resigned?

But I was an artist, a singer and penner,
unafraid of your clear tenor,
so you left one day for reasons unexplained,
my voice unsamed, my throat unclaimed.

I’ll never find a partner who complements,
My sanity and halfway sense

With even one-tenth of the love that you pretended;
but you’re dead to me now,
And I’m half-mended.

Searching
for an echo
to scorch us when we were cold;
you searched the wrong voice first, my friend,
I won’t break
though sometimes
I fold.

Jeff Mach Written by:

Jeff Mach is an author, playwright, event creator, and certified Villain. You can always pick up his bestselling first novel, "There and NEVER, EVER BACK AGAIN"—or, indeed, his increasingly large selection of other peculiar books. If you'd like to talk more to Jeff, or if you're simply a Monstrous Creature yourself, stop by @darklordjournal on Twitter, or The Dark Lord Journal on Facebook.