Strategò

If rivals of foes prove friends of mine,
Doth thee suppose I shall favor thine?
For lest we forget all lost proverbs of yore,
We shan't dismiss what's to settle this score.

Based On a True Story

Accost the poor girl with the evicted heart
We have known your intentions from your entrance, the start
If the labor of courtship could summon such plight,
Let it be tonight

The man, but a boy, smug with self-proposed right
The girl, the bleached hair, and the past-provoked spite
The cheap, battered bar with the broken neon light
Only for tonight

Her glazed stare would sweep through the dim-lighted space
Her gamut of demons ran lines across her face
Towards her bloodshot eyes, so deprived of their light,
That glowed just last night

A series of pinpricks at the bend of his arm
Shot a poison through his veins to manifest such a harm
With a ruthless ambition and no end in sight,
He set out on that night

The illusion of desire with the coldest intentions
A nudge or a whisper of the falsest affection
Biting her lip, she now begs for attention
“Just this one night…”

But now jolted to sense by the sounds of alarms
She slit her eyes to glimpse the backseat of a car
Her mouth fell open, but mute, she wondered, contrite,
“What have I done tonight?”

Now aware of her panic, he reared his calloused hand
With a brilliant, blunt bruising, she acquiesced to his demand
Through the stinging, salty tears, glistened all the flashing lights
“Will I make it through this night?”

Though it would not be the first time, it would be the last,
She would exhibit such innocence through the spells that she cast
For the young man caught on, as her soul did alight
That bitter, portentous night