The City of the Dead

 Wrote this for English class junior year

A dark cloud rolls across the sun
Everything goes dark
The sun reappears, but not for long.
More black clouds of smoke
Roll across the sky
An earthquake thunders through the Earth's crust
A wave of heat ran through the Earth.
Ash and dust were forced into the sky
Then, suddenly,
Everything went black
The sundials were no use,
There was no way to tell the time
One moment it had been day,
Now it was right.
Smoke forced the city into blackness
It was blacker than any night.
Flames appeared
Shooting into the sky
Broad sheets of fire attacked the town
There was nothing anyone could do
The city was burning.
Ash was still raining down
Everywhere, white pumice thundered down,
Hitting people, throwing them to the ground
To say nothing of the violent tremors
Running through the Earth's veins
Molten lava shot in a fiery storm
Toward the black sky,
Carbon dioxide floated through the air
Unseen, colorless death
Red clay tiles from roofs
Death was the only thing to avoid know
It was like a shipwreck,
No one was stopping,
People were in a hurry,
They wanted to get home, get inside
Shelter!
But there was no shelter
Carbon dioxide come in with them,
Ash and dust seeped through the walls,
There was no escaping it.
Stones rained down from the sky
It wasn't just hail,
Death was at a much higher rate.
People were dying in the streets,
Calling for lost family members.
Many choked to death on he gases
Calling for their missing loved ones.
In a few seconds,
The town was gone, never to return,
It was over.
Fires still flamed
Libraries of scrolls had ruined by the fires
People were lying dead in their homes, on the streets,
Where they had fallen,
Buried in the ash
People had to fend for themselves
Many had died
They hadn't had the opportunity to escape.
Escape was near impossible.
Lightning flashed the sky,
Thunder rolled in the distance
A night, blacker than anything that had been seen,
Had descended upon a small sections of Europe
Elsewhere in the world,
People were going about their lives
Unknown to them,
People were dying in Italy.
The storm continued on through the night.
It was perpetual night
Never ending night,
The night continued
It didn't end
There was no end in sight
The fires were still burning
Ash, smoke and dust hung over the town
Burned, asphyxiated people lined the streets
Their bodies in an unrecognized state
Earthquakes thundered through,
Shifting the already precarious Earth
Buildings crashed to the ground,
Killing more.
The perpetual night,
Never seemed to end
The end was nowhere
No one knew when it was going to end
They only knew that right at the moment,
They were living through Hell on Earth.
They were living through the Fires of Hell
And they weren't even dead yet,
Through they might as well be,
Because how could the
Hell on Earth,
Compare to the real thing that had been haunting
Their brains for years,
The fires still burned,
Smoke, ash and dust slowly rose,
Revealing the extent of the damage
Shifting off the rest of the living.
Death was in the houses
Death was in the streets
Death was everywhere.
Pompeii.
A once prospering city on the Gulf of Naples
Was a city of the dead
A city that had been celebrating Vulcanalia,
The Festival of the Roman God of Fire,
Was now a monument to Pluto,
God of the Dead.
Pompeii had fallen into the Underworld
And into the hands of Pluto,
God of the Dead.

Black Plagued Dreams

Wrote this for English junior year of high school

Flames reaching into my dreams.
They grasp my shoulder,
And pull me from the bed.
I scream in pain and panic.

No one hears me,
Everyone's asleep.
Safe.
Sound.
Not me.
I'm screaming.

I open my eyes.
A clammy hand is around around my shoulder,
The flames of hell flying high.
I raise my hand to ask to be let free.
All I see are two black eye sockets
The figure has drawn a black robe around himself.
On his face,
A beak-nosed mask,
The tip brushes my cheek.
I try not to scream.
A hand claps over my mouth,
And I am thrown back through time.

The stench is terrible.
I am lost.
I don't know where I am.
Then, I realized it was all a bad dream.
My brother sits beside me.
"Do you not understand the meaning of
'Your sister has had the Black Death'? Go home!"
 The matron is furious.

In a blur everything comes rushing back.
It was just a dream.
I'm not in hell.
I had the Black Death.
I escaped the terrible death that once awaited me,
One of the few people in Venice to do so.

Flames blur all memories,
Every dream I had forced the
Flaming fires of hell
To be burnt into my memory.
Forever.
The flaming fires of hell
Will burn in my memory.
Forever.

Anger

Wrote this for English, sophomore year of high school.

Waves crash upon the shore
Sounding like thunder in my ear
The sun shines into my eyes blinding me
"Uh...Apollo, you shine too bright"
But I know he will not listen
The sky darkens
Zeus is angry
Lighting flashes across the sky
Assuring me that is the truth
I know the message he's sending me
I stab my trident through the water
As if I were killing a mere mortal
I watch as the sea foams
A boat is sailing in the distance
I drive the foaming waves towards it
And watch as the sea eats it up
I have watched people try to defeat me
But  always catch up with them
No matter how fast they go
I force the sea apart
And into the depths they sink
All storms start with somethin
Mostly Zeus' anger
People sink through the waves
Screaming for someone to save them
But I show no mercy
If Zeus wants someone dead
Then I carry out my task
The waves crash and roll below me
Splashing high against my rock
Lighting flashes across the sky
I send wave after wave
High and mighty to steal away their lives
No one can defeat me
I am Poseidon
God of the Sea

Mabel

 This is a sonnet I wrote for English freshman year of high school. It's probably one of the few poems you'll see on here that rhymes. Most everything else will be free verse

Black, sleek and she sheds
Warm by the fire
Not on any of the beds
But has her heart's desire
Jumping over grass and river
Wet paws trotting far ahead
It is well-known that she would love some liver
And then curl up where she'd get fed
She loves food more than the universe
I think she'd probably eat wood
And her direction she may reverse
I'm sure she's up to no good
Chasing chipmunks up a tree
Running back to me with glee.

Song of the Death of Pompeii

Volcano, great and mighty,
Minutes before eruption
A loud bang comes from the volano.
Smoke, ash and dust
Billow from the top.
Clouds form,
Rain falls,
Thunder olls,
Lightning streaks across the sky.
They sky goes dark as midnight,
People caught off guard,
People fall to the ground
Dead from carbon dioxide.
Rocks flying through the air,
People scream and die
Death and terror everywhere.
Not a soul lives from this eruption.

Song of Venice

Oh, Queen of the Adriatic,
You Are the City of Waterways,
Linked to Italy only by a thin stretch of land
You are the city with the mazes of canals,
Gondolas and vaporettos ride into ports.
Queen of the Adriatic you were called
When Marco Polo set forth to Asia
To meet the great ruler, Kublai Khan.
You have lived through the Years of Terror,
The Second War and Hitler.
You have throughout history.
You will be remembered within me
As the Queen of the Adriatic.
The majestic, the uncconquerable,
Never fearful, Venice.

Burning Anger

Anger flooded her brain
Anger invaded her blood
But not all was anger
Eyes shut tight
Immersing into a steam of anger
Burning into it
A dagger whipped through the air
Anger carved the track behind
Anger is a river of emotion!
Everything came crashing down
The dagger whipped toward her out of the night
It drove home
It cast blood from her veins
Blood trickling through the streets
Blood flowing like a river
It mixed with the street muck
The scent mixed with the air
The iron smell of blood turned into clouds
Hanging heavy over the town
Anger swirled into a river of emotion
Driving her from the Earth
Casting her soul into the air
Casting her body to Helll
Casting her soul into the Land of the Dead
But death is not the end
Death is only the beginning
The beginning of an unknown journey