Bitter nostalgia chills me to the bone,
Whilst the whispering wind knocks on my stone.
Hitherto gloom, the erratic weather, an omen, rich funeral tune,
And hear thee pleas, black smoke approaching hither.
Black rain pour’d on, that drench’d paper sheet
A plague worthy of the name bestow’d upon it.
From Asia to Europe and dear old England,
The darkness painstakingly but surely took each by hand.
To dictate the situation, sorrow drowns thou,
But embrace this grief with boldness as did England how.
“Science blame’d bubonic, fleas and black rats,” for tis black light
But England was burie’d, conceal’d from sight.
“An automatic remission of sin, the Clement VI decree,
The invisible sword claim’d victims too rapidly…
The menacing pandemic was insatiable; its greed grew bigger
Catastrophic melody bellows, come forth hither
Non-absurdity—nonchalantly stealing Europe in size.
Blessing of headaches, chills, fever and vomiting, cower
Blistering sores that seem’d to fester forever,
Drowsy fatigue kill’d their consciousness,
Thou find peace in blatant ignorance
Bleeding tongues that wag such insolence,
When terror worst hits the many villages.
Plain not the irony the joy of death for the victims (what foolery we claim it to be!),
And agony sweeps the family to lose yet another kin (shouldn’t they be numb by now?)
Holler thee, our food supply is diminishing (amidst death like no other)
They won’t sell us grain, no matter our shameless pleading.
France prohibits transactions with us, the rest
Suffer from crop failures lacking manpower, best
Those curs’d pirates looting for black markets
Sound the incessant war cry, Scotland befalls,
And all reserves activate, this is the call
Drown cries of trivial inflation and money issues,
Malnutrition, poverty, disease and starvation when war ensues
And god lost all goodness, religion a joke
Hear ye, welcome the secular groups’ folk.
The Jacquerie Rebellion, Ciompi and English Peasants revolt,
The unsightly uprisings, laugh at the ravaging colt.
The ordinance and statute of laborers restrict’d our wage increase,
The government threw us in jail lest our whining won’t cease.
But bless depopulation, and the devil it bore-shortage of labor,
We surviving laymen grew in power through demand, rotten core
Soaking in a period of cheap welfare, degeneration soar!
Renew’d religious fervor and fanaticism bloom’d,
Christians blame’d Jews (and others), in the fire of stupidity they consum’d (anger)
The Jews and lepers were condemn’d as guilty,
Spare not even the gentile creatures (women) God plann’d to be.
Holler at the Church, who promis’d divine cure and yet grossly fail’d,
Retribution for false proclamation-a disgusting alienation of religion and rebellion-hail’d
Welcome new ideals, flagellants-still undeserving of any intellectual capcity
Sanity die’d with each flog, but revive the plague it did, utmost imbecility!
And one last gift did this plague beset upon us, the inculcation of morbidity
Into culture that was once so pure! We kill’d the cats for they wrought
This monstrosity on our souls (and let the rodents survive). Wipe out
Alchemy-it worsens the plagues and still, kill the cats…” Ha!, the blasphemy, the irony!
And so here ends my tale, I hope you’re satisfi’d and perhaps,
A tinge still alive and kicking no? Reckon it’s not a tale
Worthy of perishing? Then if this gruesome poem
Didn’t kill you, perhaps the Black Death will…
-Sean Sum (Sumz da King)