This poem was originally published as a Twitter thread. The previous poem, “Seven Deadly Sins III: Luxuria”, can be found here.
The sea was crashing madly
towards the empty shore
And lightning lit the heavens
along with thunder’s roar
The port town seemed abandoned as
I entered in the rain
But looks can be deceiving when
you deal with the profane
Thus I resumed with caution
and soon I reached the sea
And well there I discovered what
fate had in store for me
For there amongst the surges a
monstrosity emerged
A serpent from the depths of Hell
repulsive and unpurged
And as I watched it slither
there rose up from the waves
the people of the village
turned into green eyed slaves
Undead they came towards me
a hunger in their eyes
And moaning accusations
filled with the demon’s lies
They hungered for my life force
they hungered for my quest
Denying me in envy
those things and all the rest
Aversely I conceded
that these people were lost
I could not bring them back from
the line that they had crossed
So I brandished my weapon,
the magic staff of myth
That angels once did grant me
to banish darkness with
The glowing staff before me
I fought my way ahead
Attempting to convince myself
they were already dead
When finally I stood there
right at the water’s brim
The demon pierced me with his gaze;
I stared right back at him
“So this is what it comes to”
the snake hissed with a grin
“You’ve come to meet Invida,
the fourth and mightiest sin?”
I nodded then in silence
and suddenly I knew
That all the power he possessed
was actually my due
For after all my triumphs
why should not also I
Be blessed with all the powers
befalling those up high?
A sudden rage did fill me;
I was worth more than so
And thus I raised my staff again
and fell upon my foe
And I struck out in anger
to take back what was mine
But somewhy the staff failed me and
the snake did me entwine
I fought with all my strength but
the demon only laughed
“Your puny tools can’t harm me when
you’ve fallen for my craft”
With that he bared his fangs and
my will began to shake
For suddenly I realized
my fatal, grave mistake
I’d fallen for his envy
and let it cloud my mind
And now the snake would kill me –
how had I been so blind?
But as fangs closed around me
I struck a final blow
And my relief was endless when
the staff began to glow
The snake screamed out in terror as
I pierced right through its eye
It slithered back in panic but
it still refused to die
The sea parted around me when
I walked to where it lay
And brought forth now the crystal
to catch my fourth big prey
The snake called Leviathan
tried both to beg and bribe
But I had learned the hard way not to
listen to his tribe
The crystal’s light burst forth then,
outshone the thundering sky
And when the flash subsided
alone stood only I
Despite another triumph
a sadness filled my soul
For so many had died here
for me to reach my goal
In silence I retreated,
without turning around
Not looking at the bodies
still lying on the ground
A fourth sin was defeated
but at a heavy cost
And as I journeyed on I knew
that innocence was lost.
This poem was written in response to a hashtag game series by Marc Tizura/@areyouingrenin. The theme was “The Seven Deadly Sins”, and this day’s particular prompt was Envy – Leviathan. The Twitter hashtag is #tfteotw – go find more flash fiction there! The next poem in the series, “Seven Deadly Sins V: Gula”, can be found here.
...these grains of sand 