Death of a King

Never once in his life

Had the king ever felt regret

For the things that he had done

From the moment he sat upon the royal throne

And was given his golden crown

He ruled with an iron fist

When assassins came to kill him

On the very night he was crowned

He brutally mutilated them himself

And had his guards take them outside

To set in front of his castle for all to see

Since then, none have made that mistake again

Then there were the townspeople

Who had the gall to speak of him disrespectfully?

He quickly picked out these people

Those he knew had the most influence

 And had them whipped 100 times for their insolence

Since then, none have spoken against him

Then there were the farmers and workers

The farmers had begun to refuse to pay their taxes

 So he confiscated and sold their farms

 The workers had also been failing to do their job properly

So he fired them all and employed new people

Since then, none have failed to pay their taxes or do their job

Then there were the criminals

Whom the king hated most of all

He couldn't stand how they dared to do wrong in his kingdom

So he sent out an order to take out all in the jail or dungeon

And he had them beheaded for all to see

Since then, none dared to do criminal acts in his land again

Finally his rage fell upon the supposedly lazy servants

And the supposedly scheming aristocrats of his castle

In an angry fit, he fired every last servant

And stripped the aristocrats of their nobility

Expelling them all from the castle

The king was now totally alone

That was the last straw for the people

They had lived through steadily rising taxes

The loss of jobs for many all around

And the horrible treatment overall

Now everything the king and done turned around in full force

As the people finally revolted

Finding himself without a guard to protect him

The king was quickly captured and thrown in jail

Then several days later he found himself

Before the torture stage he had set up

For those he had found guilty of crimes

As a warning to everyone else

He was lead to a great pit he had forced many people to dig

There he was thrown in along with the leeches

He had put specifically in there as a form of torture

In seconds he was covered in the bloodsucking fiends

And quickly fell prey to the acute blood loss

He could feel his life being stolen away

Scared out of his life he called to the people

“I promise I'll change.”

His voice cracked from the strain of using his weakening voice

“I'll repeal the taxes, return the work, burn the stage!”

But the people said, “We don't need you to do any of that.”

With that, they poured some kind of liquid down into the pit

Too late, he understood what this liquid was

As a burning stick was thrown into the pit

Slowly, slowly, it seemed to fall

As the king watched his life ticking away

With one last cry he called out for all to hear

“You will all regret this day, you hear?”

“From this day you will never again have a good harvest

And you shall spend your life in squalor as you die from hunger

You will...” The rest was cut off

As the flame finally touched the oil in the pool

Immediately, the entire pit was bursting with flames

And quickly spread throughout the stage

The villagers watched silently

As the flames flowed towards the sky

As it tried to match the brilliant colors of the sun setting

Higher and higher the flames rose

As the last rays of light disappeared under the horizon

The king was dead