Free The New Death and others by James Hutchings

coincidence.
    Rosie took the cat with a broken leg without
comment, though the man seemed to want to chat. When she arrived
next morning there was a horse in front of the surgery. It had a
broken leg, and a bow tied around its belly.
     
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    The Apprenticeship
     
    I heard my lover's wheezing breath
    and knew it would be soon.
    I begged another year from Death
    and felt Death in the room.
     
    He said, "That which you ask, I grant.
    I'll let your lover live."
    I waited, knowing well that he
    would rather take than give.
     
    He said, "I long for lifeless lands
    for tombs long since picked clean
    for cities buried by the sand
    unliving and unseen.
     
    "I go among the swarming young
    who've conquered all the Earth
    submerged inside a hateful tide
    that swells with every birth.
     
    "I never rest. I never sleep.
    I never stop to mourn.
    And yet for every soul I reap
    a dozen more are born."
     
    He said, "I long for lifeless lands
    for silent, sterile tombs.
    But duty calls and pride commands
    and hatred seals my doom.
     
    "The favor that you ask, I grant.
    I'll let your lover be.
    But who has heard of anything
    Death gave away for free?"
     
    He said, "Therefore, take up the war
    and follow where I lead."
    I heard my lover's wheezing breath
    and, sick at heart, agreed.
     
    We went among the swarming slums
    where misery was endless.
    In filth and murk we did our work
    as master and apprentice.
     
    Some died of hunger, some disease
    some sadness, some of rage
    but none of those I saw Death seize
    had lived their natural age.
     
    In every dirty shanty-town
    we harvested our crop.
    Among the poor Death looked for more
    until, at last, I stopped.
     
    "O Death," I said, "my hands are red
    my back weighed down with sin.
    I must make whole my broken soul.
    I will not kill again."
     
    A rattling sigh, and Death replied
    "Each mortal soul, it seems,
    who sees blood spilt is racked with
guilt
    and begs to be redeemed.
     
    "Yet stroke of pen may kill more men
    than any blade could cause.
    I vow that there's no millionaire
    with hands less stained than yours.
     
    "No statesman and no senator
    less filled with lies and wrong
    and still their sleep is calm and deep.
    Their lives are rich and long.
     
    "But so be it. Your choice is made.
    Our covenant is dead."
    He turned from me. I saw that we
    were by my lover's bed.
     
    I heard my lover's wheezing breath
    and knew it would be soon.
    I left my lover lying pale
    and lifeless as the moon.
     
    This sense of shame that brought no gain
    seems trivial and small
    but sometimes I believe it's why
    Death has not reaped us all.
     
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    The Jeweled City
     
    In the jeweled city of Karsh, also called
Karsh the Wicked, or Karsh of the Red Sands (the latter for its
gladiatorial arena), the sorcerer Akra-Tep spoke to the demon he
had called forth from the stars.
    "O demon," he said, "our city is ruled by a
succession of degenerate and feeble-minded god-kings. Its lifeblood
is the labor of an army of slaves, whose reward is broken skin and
bent backs. The city overflows with salt and silver, yet is as full
of beggars as a corpse is filled with maggots. One might wish that
our city be destroyed by the barbarians who press upon our borders.
Alas, they are grim, bitter savages, who kill without surcease or
sorrow, as cruel as they are ignorant. Ours is an age of misery and
ruin, a house wherein each beam is rotten, a field that brings
forth a crop of stones. What has doomed us? Why are we sunk in
unrelenting hopelessness and brutality?"
    "O Akra-Tep," the demon replied, "I know not
if the world is as you say. Therefore I will go forth, and return
with the truth of it." Having spoken, the demon flew over the city.
It saw the nobles, and the merchants, and the laborers, and the
beggars, and the slaves. But all was as the wizard had described.
Then it flew above the lands of the barbarians. There, too, was
nothing to contradict the words of