Love Poem: Beyond the Dungeon Door
William Kershaw Avatar
Written by: William Kershaw

Beyond the Dungeon Door

O Catie love ye do ask too much of a poor scribbling poet to ask him to
open the doors so ye can view the terrible thing he knows himself to be.
All men and mayhap women too know what terrors hide behind our own locked 
doors. Yet still ye ask, so very well, I'll unbolt the door to allow ye to peer with-
in if ye are so inclined. I for one have seen inside and know what a putrid slice
of humanity I am and how I revel in the darkness when drunkeness or pain or even 
simply living allows those fetid shutters to slip and let me see. I speak not of evil 
deeds I have performed nor of any punishment I fear for these foul perfomances, 
but of the satisfaction felt when the girl who wouldna dance with me is paralysed in 
a car wreck or when my old boss hangs himself after going bankrupt. These 
thoughts and others like them and worse I have imprisoned herein. Because these 
things hang festering like buboes on my soul ready to rupture and allow their 
stinking pus to flow, I cannae further go. Still here be the key for ye to use if ye still
wish to see. I ask only that ye dinna remove my chance to suicide but leaved it 
within and bring it not into the light. I dinna believe we'll like each other after but I 
will understand if ye wish not to bear my company more. This key and my love as my 
friend are all I have to gie thee. Pray, use both well.