Poem: Out of Place, Out of Time

I am not of this place

Never has it been my home

It itches at me

Gnaws at my soul

Ignoring what beats in my chest

Chafing at these restraints

Unable to act

Follow my instincts

I couldn’t have been a soldier

Following orders

Trusting they are right

Too many to lay faith by

My place isn’t one of orders

Should I tear open my breast

Display the thing drumming within

A crashing sound

Restrained

Muffled

Raging defiance

To stand with the few

Facing the many

Claiming my own glory

Howling in frenzy

Twisted, unnatural

Experiencing the riastradh

Warp-spasm

Deformed into a creature of war

Stealing honor with every fallen foe

Treading in the steps of Culann’s Hound

Or silent, grim-faced

The killer you cannot see

Waging a new war

At odds with the ways of the ancestors

Silently approaching the monstrous men

Dashing them into the next world

With a hellish crash

Wreathed in smoke

Their fine clothes no more

Not stains a washer woman could erase

A cascade of crimson

Brought forth from something miniscule

Such a small piece of metal

Containing the power

That no torturer could escape

Perhaps I misspoke

I could have taken these orders

Nodding my assent

Should Cathal Brugh tell me to march

To match cruelty and malice

With a depth of ferocity

Forcing them back

Cornered

An agreement given

Through clenched teeth

Stealing back an island

Pilfered so long ago

I would have hunted your murderer

Screaming your name

Avenging you, Big Fellah

I remain out of place

With an addled mind

That will never comprehend

The world I was born to

Too late

So very late