Death in winter

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



A life is lost in winter
On Melbourne’s frigid streets,
In Fisher Street, an alleyway
A heart no longer beats.

In a blanket in dense shrubbery
A young man, old before his time,
Lies huddled ‘gainst the winter chill
Until they make a ghastly find.

The police go in to investigate
Alerted by a noxious stench,
And from the blanket’s putrefaction
Protrudes a single fist in clench.

Remains too foul to mention
Are of a man long dead,
Attacked while sleeping in the shrubs
For twenty years his only bed.

Syringes lie around the corpse
The signature of those who kill,
Who took this poor man’s empty life
Exulting in their monstrous thrill.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on May 04, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
16

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XXBX XCDC DEXE XBXB XXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 694
Words 123
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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