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How Grim Is the Grim Reaper?

How grim is the Grim Reaper?
Rapacious and rambunctious;
Solemn stalker, soul seeker,
Slayer uncompunctious.

How dim his lair’s darkness?
Capacious, crenellated
Wailing walls of starkness;
Evil never sated!

How slim is our survival?
A silver shining sliver
Of time from our arrival
Until the final shiver.

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God Is the Inconvenient Truth

October 29, 2017

“The Universe Should not Exist,”
__The headline read today,
The scientists in Switzerland
__Cannot believe the way
The universe we know is structured
__In perfect symmetry.
They did exhaustive research,
__Now face this quandary.

When I consider outer space,
__How vast the universe,
The distances to other worlds
__That man wants to traverse,
I’m but a molecule in size.
__I come to realize, forsooth!
Our planet is a speck; God is
__The “Inconvenient Truth.”

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LTC Roy E. Peterson is a writer, retired U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, Foreign Area Officer, and Foreign Commercial Officer who currently resides in Texas.

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12 Responses

  1. Peter Hartley

    Roy – well, silver is one of those words, like orange, that it is supposed to be difficult to rhyme properly but you have made a very good bit of internal rhyme/assonance out of it. skilful use of female rhyme, and it’s not often I see rambunctious and uncompunctious in the same stanza. In the second poem, the inconvenient truth and summation is that only the Deity could have produced what science cannot explain? Forsooth and Gadzooks! This poem makes me think till my head hurts. Well done for both of them.

    Reply
  2. Roy E. Peterson

    Peter, Those are wonderful and gracious comments. I really appreciate them coming from such an articulate and discerning poet!

    Reply
  3. Paul Freeman

    I particularly liked the Grim Reaper poem. It rattles along at a fine old pace.

    Perhaps instead of ‘Evil’ you could consider ‘Hunger’ since Old Grim’s only doing what he’s intended to do. He has nothing personal against his victims – more like Beelzebub’s Bailiff – and ‘evil’ sort of changes the light-hearted tone of the poem.

    Thanks for the reads.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Definitely something I will consider. Thank you for the suggestion. Now I have to think out the dichotomy of the Grim Reaper taking souls to hell, as I always envisioned, and angels taking souls to heaven, as I envisioned.

      Reply
  4. Mike Bryant

    I love both of these. I love the first for the wordplay and the second for the message. I do have a small suggestion. I think the title of the second would be better as, “The Inconvenient Truth.” That way you don’t give away that message until the final line. Really enjoyed these.

    Reply
  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Roy, I love the sheer joy and musicality of “How Grim Is the Grim Reaper?” with its fun rhymes and chilling closing line.

    “God Is the Inconvenient Truth” tells the humbling truth beautifully. Thank you!

    Reply
  6. David Watt

    Roy, the clever use of luscious vocabulary in “How Grim Is the Grim Reaper” is a treat. The second poem proves a point in style.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      I really appreciate your use of “luscious vocabulary.” Thank you for your kind comments!

      Reply

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