Jack's Choice

I've spent the evening hunting, as I'm wont to do and choosing for tonight an older lass, I hold the shop door open while she passes through and as it closes, watch her in the glass Her face is plain, no trace of paint unlines her skin, her matted hair is gathered in a bun Beneath the shabby dress, her frame is overthin, still, I've decided she's to be the one I drop my gaze just as she steps into the street Of which route she will take, I've made a note My heart begins to pound and I increase it's beat by fingering the blade beneath my coat When moments later, I begin to follow her, the horror I keep hidden shakes its cage The monster I restrain by day begins to stir and begs me to unchain it from its rage She leads me on for leagues but I am not deterred In fact, I'm quite encouraged by the treck All bets, I'm not the first this dicey whore has lured, which gets her one slice more across her neck She hurries up the walkway of a sodden shack and after she has shut the sagging door, I peer in through a dirty window at the back and see her place her parcels on the floor No sooner has she done so, when a tiny child, - her son - appears and dashes to her arms and it is then, the thrashing beast I've let run wild is battered back by blaring new alarms I stand, deflated by this unprovoked retreat and panicked, try to stoke the rage again but find my homicidal urges can't compete with what has just awoken in me, then A crisis of one's conscience, for one moment, will illuminate the choice twixt wrong or right and as it was my BEAST, not HER, I chose to kill, your cobbled streets are safe. At least tonight.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written: June 4, 2021 Contest: Imagism Poetry Sponsor: Emile Pinet