Hey guys! I know I haven't written any LBT content recently (and I'm sorry about that), but I'm attending a poetry workshop on my campus that stuck me with a rather interesting poem prompt to work with. The prompt was simply to write a poem from the viewpoint of a villain from a movie, book, game, etc.
Results below.
Sharptooth
First, an apology.
For fears fostered in hushed rumors,
Tall tales told in huddled herds,
Nightmares made manifest in my
Toothy visage.
I know why you ran.
I would not have preferred it, of course,
But who could blame a band of five,
Standing in the shadow of the face
Of cautious parents’ warnings.
I know what it is to be small.
To fear the thing that stands
Taller than the tallest tree,
In your dreams,
Smaller in the flesh, but no less a threat.
I was small once, too.
I jumped at shadows bigger than myself,
Watched the watering
Holes for shifty eyes, peering,
Hungry teeth, saliva dripping.
The wind whispers.
They say the sky fell around the world.
I would not believe it, but-
The earth is hungry as of late.
Swallowing maw claiming more than I ever could.
I pity you.
A boulder sends me down, down,
Beneath the waves, a merciful strike,
Sunders my might, saves me from life,
From foraging, dining on dwindling, feeble fodder.
But you still must eat.
Like me, you eat to survive.
Gain sustenance from the weak,
Does the green speak to you?
Do you hear its screams in dreams as I do?
They rage and scream.
They rage, and scream, and fight,
As you fought,
And for the first time, someone else won, and I-
I, grateful, lost.
No more questions.
Who to hunt today?
Who to fight that I may,
Lay claim to a waste with or without prey,
Day in, day out, hunt, eat, sleep, repeat.
I would give nothing to be you.
My death is forthcoming, and swift.
I breathe water, while you
Inhale the ash on the wind,
Which kills you in a slower way.
We come to an end.
She fought to save you, fought and died,
She is free, and so,
I too will be. A cycle repeats,
Death brings death, and my release.
I part my lethargic jaws, revealing one last time my namesake.
The beast is gone, your “justice” is done,
And as I surrender,
To this dark, crushing, silty floor.
I roar, no more.
