New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
The Dark Side
Plague
David Anderson
Arms like trees, back broad and long
I am a labourer by trade,
Though I don’t brag, of all my friends
I lift the most – it’s how I’m made!
There’s nothing I like more than when
They need me for a heavy crate,
Though now I see my gift of strength
Was not enough to fend off fate.
For one black day a judgment came
The heavens meted me a test,
A thing not heavy in dead weight
But from its pull I had no rest.
And me this thing rode many years:
I blocked all thought of that black seed;
A seed it was and grew it did
Roots in my back down through my knees.
The plague it brought weighed less than air
But heavily it dragged me down,
I fell (a giant of a man) to grief
And shrank into the ground.
As I quivered on my knees
My strength depleted by the weight,
I knew the size of a man's arms
Shows little of what he can take–
For during ten strong years alone
My good wife’s death had built my tomb.
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