blackguard

Danse Macabre - Chapelle Notre-Dame de Rocamadour - © J.L. Dupont

watch the bony blackguard come with open visor or in stealth slow for some for others swift but for all of us he comes with fingers cold and deft to claim that precious gift which we know was just a loan

and when the blackguard's gone his blackest black we don and mourn covering our heads in ashes

weeping away our losses and though all he did was but redeem the debt in our grief we call him  —  thief  —