'All the World's a Stage'

Amidst the shadowed flow of fabric gently overhung
She waits in silence for the lights to fade,
A glance, through silken cracks reveals a world across the stage
Present, yet oblivious to all else.

Enraptured in its heated swoon of pure debauchery
Near none can sway it from such filthy holes
A search for passions unrestrained from scruples of aged
Begat this sad result of gross conceit

Alone among these peers, her soul stood forth amidst the shroud
Devoid of moral thought and Godly love
But, weakened by its influence she has but one last chance
To stand and fight against th’ oppressing world   

And yet through all this picture bleak, she prays that one soft heart
Steps forward from the error of its ways.
To join her in revolt against the spirit-deadening plight
In which all else seems anxiously engaged.

Above the clamor, one bright spotlight gleams through dusty air,
Lone beacon to the curtains parting curves,
From which her saintly grace doth permeate this fouled place
And piques the malformed minds of the impure.

Unto its cruel, uncaring soul, her part seems out of place
Why speak of love? For such is decadence
To modern eyes. The lustful stares of wretched men in rags
Are all that’s giv’n; emotion cast to Death.

A glance across this motley crowd reveals a deeper fear,
Of vile intentions showing in their grins
Infernal wishes most obscene drown out her pleading song
As shady corners lurk with grasping hands

O’ercome by pressing waves of Hell, she crumples in despair
As cries of triumph break the dam of light
Death pours its rank embrace in throes of seething lustful hordes
Who clamber for the chance to claim the prize.

A sudden shout from far behind, a sound of rushing feet
One man staves off the hands that pull him down.
His heart touched just enough to loose the damning chains of sin
And heal his Spirit of its greatest flaw.

The first to reach her side, he kneels and brushes back the hair
From off her tearstained worry-lined visage
This touch of warmer thoughts brings her a respite from her pallor
Holding back the tides that doomed her cause

Her fallen soul revived, renews the shine of sacred light  
In awe the world raises hands as shields
Against the unexpected glow of truth within their sight
Wherein the power of love one finally wields.

Then, with a sudden shout the horde o’ercomes their startled fear
And from the dark a dagger thrown hits true.
The man, pierced to the heart clasps at his chest and falleth dead
A humble martyr bleeding innocence.

Chaotic chants of blood-soaked words, to perverse deities rise
The Arcane forces stop her in mid-stride
Bright glints of steel are smothered in their act of taking life
A choking gasp as pools of crimson flow.

Splayed in a twisted mess of bloodied prints upon the stage
Lies dead the only good the world possessed
The play of life supplanted by a grisly free-for-all
Where pain and pleasure are the only show

Unbeknownst to them, their acts did cleft the balanced scales
Discord among the harmony of Earth
And from the trembling walls speaks forth the message they most feared
Destroying these has thus destroyed themselves

The ancient beams long straining from the burden of decay
Release their weight unto the fleeing throng
A victory cut short for those whom Hell had led astray
Gives final rest unto the Earth from wrong.