Deadliest Choice

from the bottom of the canyon

everything is clear

it was my mistake

giving away my heart

surrendering my will

love is trust they say

trust has led me here

to earthen regret

cactus barbs in my arm

scorpion venom coursing through me

vultures circling overhead

the ultimate sacrifice

myself

to save the others

exposing her kindness as fraud

their gift of gratitude?

blood pooling around my head

that evildoer exposed is now me

their blame wrongly placed

yes

I killed her

it was necessary

she’d have killed them all

a sweet death of complacency and apathy

she made them her puppets

blinded by her manipulation

yet I pay

cruel, evil, villain

slanderous labels forced upon me

her life extinguished to save her

my unrequited lover

slain to save the other men from that siren

I shall forever be

the murderer