As mentioned in our last post, Raven Breathless (formerly known as Death) gave Pungent Sound her response to the Haughty John Donne and asked (told) us to publish it. Now some may wonder why it took Ms. Breathless 400 years to respond. As Neil Gaiman (who is not the worst writer we’ve read) points out in his stunning graphic novel, The Sandman, Death is one of the Endless. Time is an entirely different concept when you are Endless so really 400 years is a pretty quick response. Plus, she has been dreadfully busy over the last 400 years.
To our knowledge, this is the first time in the epoch of life that Ms. Breathless has responded in writing to anyone or anything, so this is quite a coup for Pungent Sound – similar to when we discovered Shakespeare’s lost play As You Lick It. Please enjoy.
Death Responds to Mr. Donne
I have heard many silly taunts
in my extensive time,
and they are never more clever
just because they rhyme.
Ignorance should whisper
like a muffled chime.
I am not proud
though you are too proud to see
that when the Grand Bungler
created you it also created me.
I am not mighty or dreadful.
I do not overthrow.
Those are your birthmarks.
You are your foe.
Poison, war are a scaly brood
for which I have no need.
They hatched in the nest with you,
and you are the fodder on which they feed.
Chance is a monkey
whose mischief ends at the tomb.
Fate and sickness are encrypted
when you are in the womb.
You are the slave
of desperate men and kings,
who look like lice to me -
or other insects without wings.
I am a lantern at the end of day.
I am not the Magnificent Fumbler,
who gave you feeble DNA.
I bring peace after you have done your worst,
and while I may eventually die,
you will die first.
Raven Breathless, Chief Contributing Editor-in-Chief.
First Published in Parody.
Pungent Sound Journal of Pulp Poetry 