What Have You Done?

By Brooklyn Porter

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Based on Crime and Punishment By Fyodor Dostoevsky What Have You Done?

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking.” — H. L. Mencken

Swirling blackness,

All engulfing

Struggling for air,

To breathe

Deepest darkness,

Drowning me

Overcome and

Sinking down

Never to rise

Ever again

But the spell

Is broken

I am free, awake,

And alive

I lay still,

Eyes wide

I draw in air,

So sweet

Everything so normal,

And unchanged

Yet a nagging,

Guilty dread

Cold hands embrace My heart

Whispers of the wind, “What have you done?”

In a rush,

Memory returns

Vile sins upon

These hands

My heart breaks,

Yet again

An echoing cry,

“What have I done?”

I remember I have Shed blood

Head in hands,

Eyes streaming

Tears shed by

A murderer

Crying aloud to

A God

Growing hysteria I am Choking again

Sigh shudderingly, Left contemplating

The curse of man, Foulest curse

To carry others’ lives on One’s hands

Reverberating in my head “What have I done?”

I cannot hide,

Cannot run

Eyes in the walls,

Eyes everywhere

A horrible monster watching, Stalking prey

Smelling the smell

Of fear

Smelling the smell

Of blood

Mortal blood spilled by Mortal hands

A mortal voice cries,

“What have I done?”

Eyes, so many eyes piercing My soul

Unblinking, all-knowing, onyx eyes

Inky globes forged

In hell

The monsters bred

Of fire

The damned have

No escape

The eyes scream

one question

One alone,

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”