Retaliation

One minute
Divides the expanse
Between existence
And death by chance
For a king I stirred
To action with slur;
From a loosened tongue
My fate has come.

Now what will befall:
My head with shawl
Or executioner’s bowels?
Will I accept
My quickened death
Or strike the blow
To save my whole?

Yesterday I lived
In fields of barley
A simple life
With riches hardly
But blackened darkness
Grows ever-fierce
His death I must give
With motives scarce

But just one reason
Why kill I can
Is this fact thus:
I’m a trained assassin
No man can take
My life from me
I’ll return the favor
For all to see
But not just one
Shall die today
The king is done
His reign shall sway
I did not plan
To kill this way
But forced to stand
I take the stage

One minute
Divides the expanse
Between existence
And the king’s sad death
By my own hand.