Mask of cruelty

 cruelty grins

behind a mask of status

it gathers it children

unto itself

pacifying them with ideas

of independence and wealth

it leads them with a hollow carrot

pulled from its own barren garden

letting them play underneath

the suspended root

while holding a rusty cage

behind its back

a cage where it stores

the hearts of promise, generosity, and decency

from behind its crimson robes

stained with the bleeding poor it treads upon

it hides a withering frame 

of which is sustained by the attention 

of the hordes entertained by 

that hollow golden carrot

cruelty can only feed upon such recognition

it can only hide behind the glamor of wealth

and the idea that one can be completely free

from the rest in this life

without this fuel it would be exposed

stripped of its crimson clothing

and shown as the wretched coward

that it is

The fourth

 two elders sat playing chess

they knew in order for one to win

one of their kings would have to die

the goal in playing power

the role to play in order to devour

only one king will remain

only one king will have the say

and in this victory of the game

the board is left in a gory mess

with swords ran through rooks

decapitated knights and pawns

and even bishops and queens

lacquering the wood with blood

and what would be left of the court 

for the newly ruling king

would he have dismembered hands

serve him his chalice of wine

would drained torsos bow at his whim

and bring him tidings from his allies

what allies would come to him with open hands

and not bearing daggers behind their backs

for it all was a filthy battle fought

by the strategizing hands of the elders

who whispered dark and deadly words

into the ears of their pieces

and to all those who would eat up their lies

these foreign elders playing their game

on a land not of their own footsteps

but a land at least one of them would 

gladly have a remaining king rule

alas not even a village-sized blanket

could sop up all the victor's drool