"chainmail" poems
I met a woman
brutal in her mercy.
Her embrace was a clinch
to prevent hard blows.
She pulled me close to push me away.
Seeing my nakedness
she leant me a dream
of chainmail and shield.
Taking love from me she gave a reprieve
to a mind resigned to the slow death of feeling.
Ignoring my words she heard
my faint silent heartbeat and
understood that it was music
too quiet for the world to hear
and turned it up louder
than I could stand.
I wept in my deafness
as she danced.
Feb 15, 2019
Feb 15, 2019 at 10:28 AM UTC
Lost to backdrops scrolling past,
She sits knitting
in the carriage of a train.
The vague needles
They scintillate and glimpse
With the cadence of the wheels –
Upbeating ceaselessly.
Strips of tiny loops
And eyelets like dewdrops
Of condensation
Grouped on the superior rim.
Once in a while,
She gives a heave
To loosen more yarn from the skein
Of Filipino-made wool,
brushed worsted weave.
Spun and carded
from the richest fleece,
Deeper in the wicker basket by her feet.
The needles flash,
With ancient rhythms and attack
Of duellists in their chainmail coats.
With little hesitation she can tack
From plain to purl to blackberry.
Count back by rote or slip a stitch
While the fish-eyed gimlets gleam.
All gather profusely in her lap,
As windfall trove, rich-patterned
And warm with peach-fuzz nap,
All crafted from a single line of yarn.
Marvels fall continuously from wise
Spell-binding hands and all is well for now.
(9/11/13 @xirlleelang)
May 27, 2014
May 27, 2014 at 10:10 PM UTC
Lie, my Queen, tell me lies.
Tell me lies so I might
Sleep soundly tonight
And fend off
With your beauty
The scarred faces
That haunt
My nightmares.
Lie, tell me that I can fit
Inside a knights chainmail.
Tell me that I'm okay,
That I'm not just another mind
Who's gone
Just a little bit mad.
Who knows
Just a little bit too much.
Lie, tell me that
The love,
The hope,
The life,
I see in my sleep
Will never be real,
Will never be mine.
Of angels and butterflies,
You spoke the softest lies.
So lie, my Queen, tell me lies.
Dec 25, 2014
Dec 25, 2014 at 4:04 PM UTC
Dangerous dragon eyes
burn the stars
and scorch the skies
as the warrior lets
her silver blades fly,
Bronze skin
battle maiden,
******* in chainmail,
spear and shield
on her back
as she tracks
the beasts
who attacked
random villages.
Like a Valkyrie
she walked past me
with death on her breath.
All power and confidence,
she passes on to face this
monster in the darkness.
She moved like
a ballet dancer
rushing in
and striking him
in the place where
his scale skin was thin.
then rolled back
before the dragon’s attack.
Fire and fury
bare skin scorching
forcing her
to retreat
but only for
a solitary
second.
Claws cutting,
tail swinging,
scales scraping,
scratches stinging.
The ground
running
with the blood of
both combatants.
One arm
a ragged mess
of jagged flesh.
One dragon eye
destroyed while
sulphur and smoke
choked the breath
from her parched throat.
Long neck charging
as she parried
in a twirling fashion
letting the dragon’s head pass.
It moved quick
but she was faster
and matched that ********
primal fury.
Short silver
sharp dagger
nested itself
slightly above the neck
as the force of the animals
violent
movement
cut itself
making a long sick ****
as it lunged past fast
and finally fell
in defeat.
Jan 31, 2019
Jan 31, 2019 at 10:39 AM UTC
I built a Berlin Wall around my heart.
Not to keep others out,
but to keep myself in.
I built the walls higher
until no light could get in
and I stayed there.
I may have been alone
but at least I was safe.
Safe from you and your sugar coated words and electric touch.
Protected from the lies that seeped from between your lips,
and god, just your lips.
I kept myself away from your impish charm and devilish smile.
I had to,
I couldn’t let you in
Because when you broke me the first time
I could hardly manage
to pick up the fragments
and build them into something that at least resembled the girl I had been before.
A shell of what it was.
I added armour.
Heavy chainmail to keep me away from your beckoning embrace.
Was it worth it?
I’m not sure.
But the over flow of emotions
that I swam through every time I saw you
was drowning me.
So I built a raft and let it take me away.
I put myself here but now I’m trapped,
stuck in my own mind and stuck in my own heart.
It’s a terrible place to be.
Trust me,
you wouldn’t want to be here with me.
May 18, 2013
May 18, 2013 at 7:31 PM UTC
"Oh, yes. That hurt.
That hurt like a thousand slaps from a
Thousand teachers each. Like
Dragon claws dripping with bile and
Venom into male ego exposed. Ego
And pride and the nature of the bottles
Of labelled **** that you threw back,
Chickening out on cold, hard reality.
Once again.
Friends and lovers lost, some long,
Some not. All gone with the wine. You
Could have written volumes by now.
Recorded legendary albums, created
Art like few others.
Yet, every millidrop of your
Blood screams for someone, or
Something rather, to take you
Away from all that's everyday.
Be it even war." Well,
I want peace, now.
Battleworn and
Empty from facing all the same
Demons. Chainmail shredded,
Body worn on the inside from
Aqua Vitae and ale.
It hurts. It hurts like a thousand
Freshly sharpened pencils carving
Into the exposed areas of my love
For bad nostalgic habits and
Days after days with drink, laughter
And inhaling
The air of temporary excitement,
Picking at scabs and naming myself
Surgeon, letting the hearts of others
Pick up my tab when one of us
Inevetably leaves;
Those freshly sharpened pencils
Carving mantras to keep me alive
And wake me the Hell up, like:
*"The people I
Need do not
Need me like
This,"* and
*"I have
Pride."*
Oct 5, 2016
Oct 5, 2016 at 12:44 AM UTC
Morning was sudden-made as an onwardness of hills,
Meant for donning crusade in chainmail glistenings,
The sun visored in misty slats of cold steel,
To glimmer fusty through the godded grove,
A holy sepulchre, earthly-dim to its rafters of oak,
Where the forest-fall of sunlight shed its rosework,
And a red-breasted bird, its song-flight of dappled gleam,
And in the meadow, where colorful whorled the tale of Saladin,
Wayside flowers shook beneath the destriers' cloth caparisons,
A sunny fullness of vales for the crusaders' forest-heartened lungs,
And when this furthering of sights was sunken from,
Still an onwardness of hills to Jaffa like steppingstones.
Apr 16, 2023
Apr 16, 2023 at 10:11 PM UTC
sound the horn ;
The dead are preparing for war, my
gut is a forge they cannot find
Who hides Hephaestus' phoenix inside
chinks of rattling
chainmail ;
feather-
beak-
claw(ing)
up gravestones, RIP(ping) breath from
Flesh
So when the skies tremble to hear the
wailing of a burning sun-set
,,,
they will ride in, a silent scream of glowing-iron-hell-fire-
Hail :::
Daughter of Echidna
will You
lead us
to victory?
Aug 29, 2016
Aug 29, 2016 at 9:42 AM UTC
I went to my friend
almost afraid to expose the need
I found as I read the book,
not knowing if he would be deaf to it.
As I spoke of my father
who was not there
to show his boy how to be a man
I recounted my losses
and the load of grief I felt.
My sadness clung to me
a heavy suit of chainmail on a dark knight.
I could feel my face
drooping in lamentation
unable to be the smiling grinning buddy
I normally brought to the room.
Seemingly unable to enter into my pain,
my friend, a man of great intellect, character and conviction,
responded only with a litany of his own.
I tried to listen but my burden
made it a mighty climb.
Now I know my pal is only human
and I am wrestling
with my self
sweating MY
deafness.
Jan 28, 2023
Jan 28, 2023 at 1:50 AM UTC
I see my resolve like wax to fire.
I will be the phoenix from the ash.
I will not grant them my laboured breath in anxiety,
only pleasure.
You may have bruises, but only on my skin.
I smack
I choke.
Keep your hands off my heart.
Although I know that I would wear it like a black eye, shining, if only I had the belief.
Give me a something to chainmail my smile.
Only arrows can get in.
And only those with the intention to aim true
Nov 30, 2013
Nov 30, 2013 at 4:59 PM UTC
let pure water wash away
the remains of the ray
let it clear all but my conscience
as the moon shines brighter
as my shoulders bare, are weighted lighter
the chainmail as ***** as I feel
covered in blankets of blood
I cannot sleep, I cannot rest, I cannot deal
I cannot stop
I will fight until I drop
wash it away
wash it away
still, invisible scars remain
they stain
they stain
they stain
Mar 29, 2021
Mar 29, 2021 at 12:22 PM UTC
I know you always saw yourself a knight
But I did not realize for a long time
That I was a page.
You were my sparring partner
Who taught me to come at the world
Gun drawn
So no one could out-shoot me.
You told me,
And I know,
That Justice wears a blindfold because
She slashes her sword indiscriminately,
And looks at that scale
Never.
You always saw yourself a lawman
I always saw you as a fool.
I never realized I learned law
At your feet.
Fallacies and ways of
Drawing out argument and diatribe,
Loopholes of morality through which
We spin.
You taught me to be technically correct,
The best kind of correct,
Always exploiting but
Always within my jurisdiction.
I only know now I was a deputy
To a sheriff of ridiculous stature.
You taught me THE ART OF WAR.
It was engraved in stone for me
Like an all-caps Roman monument.
THE ART OF WAR
Is sprawled across a stone archway in my mind
Where you came, and you saw.
It marks your conquest.
You made it my way of loving,
Of relating to the world and the people around me.
You made me a martyr and mercenary,
Standing atop a hill in golden armor,
Sunlight behind me and wind in my hair,
An avatar of Durga,
A disciple of Joan of Arc,
A four-year-old poses in chainmail
You wrought for her.
Illusions of grandeur such as your own
Come with this territory.
You taught me
As your mother and father
And grandparents
Taught you,
THE ART OF WAR-
That love is just begrudging words of sweetness
Issued only after ruins lay all around
And both parties are sufficiently vulnerable,
Their bricks having been pried away with crowbars.
Love is only an apology given to mollify
The wounds you have already wrought.
The only privilege loved-ones are afforded,
Is the bandage that covers up the customary
Destruction
That is your normal face.
You and I only ever knew love as
You clipping my wings
And I breaking free to spray
The shrapnel of those chains
Into your face.
We added to each others' pile of scars.
It was so rare for us to run into battle together,
On the same side,
Voices as one in a battlecry.
I don't even know how long it's been since
Us soldiers-for-hire got hired
By the same team at once.
You cast me out of steel
Like a sword.
And now I am the legendary blade
Destined to clash against you for all eternity.
We will only ever know ceasefires
Of a day in length.
We will run through the flame,
And we will practice the art
You taught me.
Sep 28, 2015
Sep 28, 2015 at 2:49 PM UTC
My man-o'-war lies anchored
silent after crossing endless seas
as I stand on the gangway
bathed in midday heat.
The olive trees on the hillsides
grown ten times taller
since I left you here
to seek my worth
in battles with strangers.
Heavy coats of chainmail
have worn maps into my shoulders
those engines of the trickster's axe.
Though no man or beast has won me
not a queen I have not taken from her king
I still fear to stand before you
unarmored and vulnerable
before your patient inexorable love.
Your pure love
is my greatest adversary
yet you carry no sword.
You challenge me everywhere
yet you sail no ocean.
You know I am weary
yet you do not mock.
You have simply waited
for my hard road to end.
My heart stops
in mute surrender
as I lift off the last battered chest plate,
undo the sterling braces from my legs
steel falling like glass
around the pirate's helmet
tarnished at my feet.
Though a lifetime of war
has crippled my gait
I run with reckless abandon
to that open door
on the welcome street
the place I left
for no good reason
where you have endured all these years
holding the only blade
that can sever
the lover from the rogue.
May 11, 2014
May 11, 2014 at 10:57 AM UTC
Some fingers have this tendency
to crack, snag, and rip themselves
to shreds. A flurry of something like daisy
petals cling, infinite single cell threads
waiting for the right he loves me
not to fall apart.
Some fingers shed their tired
ridges in fluttering crescent smiles
peeling from the edges of soft pink nails.
They pull away like feathers ruffled
out of place in a sudden updraft,
bent at too-sharp angles.
Finger skin was always the strongest,
never flaking just because, but for the effort
of work and teeth. Those hangnails bleed
strength. They drip patience, hours
of work in restaurant sinks,
needlepoint and dresses.
They bleed music, lullabies.
A chorus of little sopranos sing
to tiny babies in cribs built
by driftwood scratched bone-smooth
and tough as chainmail.
May 8, 2014
May 8, 2014 at 12:09 AM UTC
this palate is an anvil
this tongue a hammer
forging the edges of words
reversed
Jul 29, 2016
Jul 29, 2016 at 1:12 PM UTC
I am shrouded
In forced laughter.
Chainmail with
Weakened links
Of bitter tears.
A suit of armour
Grudgingly,
Necessarily,
Worn on a straight back.
The weight of
Expectations born
Of a weary soul
Will not bow me.
The true steel
Lies in my heart.
Dec 6, 2015
Dec 6, 2015 at 6:30 PM UTC
I found out today
That I carry around chainmail
Similar to the Knights during The Middle Ages
But its more unreal
It protects me
And tells me not to spill my emotions
Similar to protecting the knight
It holds everything throughout the day
And at night
Everything within me crumbles.
I take off this "chainmail"
And i go into those dark alleys of my mind
Some with no escape
I try escaping with my plentiful books
They sometimes work
Other times its hell upon myself
My friends, and i regret it every time
But its a cycle I fail to stop
Unlike my real bike which failed me yesterday
This chainmail, its good and all
But I wish I didnt have to remove it
I dont want to make my friends suffer
But they still do.
I learnt to bottle it up…
Like thats going to help.
Just, need kevlar or something
Jul 2, 2014
Jul 2, 2014 at 7:59 PM UTC
I used to think I was
Thought nothing would ever touch me
Could ever
Yet once I awoke I found this was not the case
Seemingly everything got me
I used to think I would always be
Thinking that such thought would never plague me
Could never
Yet I found the more time passed
The more those thoughts hit me
I liked to think that I was
For the sake of me, for us
Impervious was a trait I had to hold
Without it, I'd be a mess
Over time I became Impervious
People words couldnt touch me
They held no meaning
Why do your words hit me?
How do they cut me through chainmail will?
I am Impervious, I am Imperfect, I am Impure, I am Ignorant
Simply I, me
Am Impervious to the way of this world
All but to you, who solely holds my strings
I used to think I was Impervious
Now im not so sure...
Jul 25, 2015
Jul 25, 2015 at 7:56 AM UTC
A man! From whose Godly image, cometh he, from sand;
A mortal engine! Proud son of the earth and the starry heavens;
A wandering soul, cursed to rule the seas and land;
Lord of beasts that roam and roar, and a sky filled with Ravens;
A sparkling light at tunnel's end, in seasons of strive;
Like sunrise, he cometh with hope from the eastern skies;
Like darkness, never to be found wanting where evil thrives;
A harbinger of doom, the soul behind Gaea's cry;
A Viking in chainmail saileth, Oh! I see a damsel in distress;
A Knight in shining armor rideth, Oh! I see Princess feeble;
Lean on me, saith the Wolf, while i slay thine enemies with my prowess;
A white sheep teareth, into the flesh of our lady of brittle;
Me' lady! seeketh not, the man out there in thy dream;
For all the gods, all the heavens and, hell, is within him.
Mar 13, 2021
Mar 13, 2021 at 11:50 AM UTC
riverrun past eve and adam so
fast it tossed up my chainmail
vest. For a second it shone my
tattered back battle scars.
I’m not one to reminisce
about bad times but the fish
I had wrangled had rattled so fierce
I bell fack-boreward into the fox
of fishing hooks.
Dangling pirate hands shredded
sails salty water waves filled my
whales -- “ARR ME BACK”
The fish cackled and got away.
The boat was in the Abiquiu river, a ways away
a way a lone a last a loved a long
the riverrun
Dec 11, 2014
Dec 11, 2014 at 8:11 PM UTC
I wonder what it takes to be like you
So blinded by the lies you think are true
In confidence, you strut your ridged plain
Unaware that you are walking on a plank
Fear Worn like sheer took to wind and away
I wonder Are you happy when alone?
Do thoughts of Doubt reveal themselves at home?
emotions suppressed, do they flood the surface
Of the barge you have built to resist
Growing large demons form in a cyst
You stand and call yourself a man, but
Oh Boy, I have met your kind before
Stuck in your ways like a kid on a train
Riding tracks that have no end in store
Oh Boy, you are in for a ride
I wonder why it is you choose not to see
A world as it is, as you are, Just be free
From the armor of ignorance you wear outwardly
Grab at the chance to wash rust from The skin underneath
Your perception like chainmail, linked with deception, traps truth that is needing to breathe
You think you know the lay of the land, but
Oh Boy, I have met your kind before
Stuck in your ways like a kid on a train
Riding tracks that have no end in store
Oh Boy, aren't you in for a ride
Oh Boy, You walk on a bridge made of sand
Hallucinate the belief you've found land
But what will you do when your men turn to you, and you realize you're without a plan
Oh Boy, where then do you stand?
Stuck in your ways like a kid on a train
Oh Boy, you are in for a ride
Sep 14, 2017
Sep 14, 2017 at 3:22 PM UTC
A woman kneels on the edge of the cliff
She carries a child in her arms
Her tears fall to join the black sea
She holds the child's tiny palm in her hand
The woman looks up as she prays
But her prayers cannot reach her god
A thick film of smoke obfuscates her wishes
A barrier born from the destruction of her village
The king's men quickly approach
She knows they will not spare her
For she does not believe in the same god
She will be thrown into the flames with her companions
The woman turns to her pursuers
The men in chainmail are closing in
She knows they will **** her before they **** her
For they see her as a pagan savage
She sees them as the same.
She looks back to the black sea
If she is to die, she wishes to die with dignity
She clutches the child tightly
And she steps backwards.
Nov 15, 2017
Nov 15, 2017 at 10:16 AM UTC
You may want to take me inside
but your mind is a million dripping daggers
perpendicular to the infinite edges
of my circular paradigms.
your cold soul wraps around me
like a chainmail suit.
I want to love it, as
it's supposed to love me, but
it's heavy and pinches every fiber
of my existence
and why should I wear it
when I want to run into love
completely naked?
My name is derived from Tyrant
I would say you should have expected it
but I am not one to take someone's heart
that is the ultimate crime.
Can't you see that you've stolen your own?
Look in the mirror. Unfurl your ****** fists.
Now my fingers are ablaze with hellfire.
Dec 3, 2014
Dec 3, 2014 at 9:29 AM UTC
Has my skin turned into chainmail,
Or am I just heavy with missing you
My hands shake, how could they not
without you to hold them steady
Has my heart turned into a ghost,
Or did it just sneak off to be with you
My mind wanders, how could it not
without your heart to be my North Star
Sep 16, 2018
Sep 16, 2018 at 4:52 PM UTC
One day you realise you love someone. You just know. That's it, no warning sign, no guide, just BOOM! A feeling that turns your whole world inside out and upside down. Fire from your belly that won't be calmed. Like Mother Earths polarity changing ends. They become your North and South. A friend becomes a lover and in that magical moment the way you see the world has changed. Because you share their vision. Then in a flash they have the keys to your soul and can walk through its corridors as though it is their own home. Use or abuse it as a trespasser.
In that moment you have no more armour no chainmail. No mask to hide behind. They hold your secrets and all your vulnerabilities. You gave them away like candy. You place your trust in an asassin that has your very soul to nurture or destroy.
For some they will spend a lifetime there and help you grow and heal, love and laugh.
Others simply use it as a space to rent then destroy everything that you built together on leaving.
They take more than they ever gave. Trust, love, light and more.
All they leave is desolation and fear. Damage that often can't be repaired and a hopelessness that builds walls and shuts out love like it is a poison.
Why would anyone try love again?
Jan 6, 2019
Jan 6, 2019 at 10:18 PM UTC