The Last Command Out of the Cave
Speranza, Anthony
The Last Command Open your eyes and look into mine. I know you have quietly arranged for the ultimate needle to strike and I am intended to quietly die; even though I was born to thrive, a paradigm...
...Now kill the woman and set me free...
...even though for eighteen years I shared with you the gist of me...
...Well, here I am with claws intact and instincts that sill want to be...
...Anthony Speranza...
...From the dawn of my consciousness, I saw particles curving and colliding, but none of them aspiring to connect in the way a god would deem perfect...
...even though I was born to thrive, a paradigm with a life times nine...
...And what did I notice of humankind...
...even though, feline to a fault, I hissed and spat my contempt when the woman in white said no, only pity and a proper poisoning will cure this kind of suffering...
...Tragedies and atrocities everywhere, yet minds averted to a lush Hereafter...
...There, I decided, was my opportunity...
...I assumed the allure of your inanities...
...Roundelays of praise wafted on high, as if nothing required improvement...
...I killed, mutilated, and took hostages, thinking, "One day you will love me, and I can begin the task of curing you...
...Out of the Cave I am not, as you contend, the evil one...
...even though the birds will return, eager to build their filthy nests by weaving into my pristine pines the bloody feathers I left behind...
Vol. 130 • February 2003 • No. 3
