Repentance

A land once held sacred

Is now left barren and forsaken

For the lands, now left naked

Have had their lifeblood taken

The people I once knew

No longer thrive here

Instead, hatred and darkness grew

And instilled in me both anger and fear

For what cannot be replaced

Was torn from these lands

For the evil that the people faced

Refused to give in to their demands

Without fault and without surrender

The skies wept out and cried

They were treated as a violent offender

Their voice strangled till it gave up and died

For within the heart of man lies

A terrible seed waiting to grow

Waiting patiently to sow its ties

Swallowing their hope, drowned in woes

For the foes that they faced

Had their hearts in the right place

However, their intentions displaced

Formed a mask that shielded their true face

Beneath this guise, bloodshed they wrought

Destruction all but lied in their wake

As the darkness that they had brought

Shook the Earth with a terrible quake

Make no mistake this now foreign entity

Was once referred to as a friend

With swift juncture and great brevity

The once peaceful ties would face an end

Abandoned, left stranded, I wander

My heart filled with horror and wonder

As the place I called home, left in squander

Could have possibly gone under

A land, nay a culture, a people, gone

Within the blink of an eye

No more blood to be drawn

No one left to call out or cry

The world that I once knew

Its vibrancy has left me

The dirt where the grass once grew

Now void of what it should be

The skies no longer part 

Not a single ray of sunshine

The air around me tasting tart

No longer welcomed by the divine

The wars that were waged

In the names of the lives lost

Left people starved, caged

Their lives, penance, as a cost

Revenge is what they seeked

And revenge is what they got

Destruction is what they wreaked

Having is what they had wrought 

Their bodies, their channels, laid open

The people, once proud, faced demise

My prayers remained unspoken

As I waited for the fields to rise

From the ashes of the damned

I hoped I had paid my repentance

My hands worked through the grime

I had received another sentence

One that was worthy of my crime

My people have all perished

Due to the hatred I had sought

I exchanged what I most cherished

The seed of hate, I had bought

My hatred towards the others

Those I had deemed, lower, lesser

Left barren were my brothers

No clothes can be found within my dresser

I once thought I was wise

My vision of self was twisted and frayed

From these ashes, I must rise

And face the mistake I have made

The ending I could not foresee

The enemy I thought laid beneath the twisted tree

The monster I thought I killed to set my people free

Lives on and will hopefully perish alongside me