Her Troubled Soul

Melancholy and rage have
been her intimate and
valued companions for the
half-century of life
she strode through with
resentment and spite
following desperately in the
thundering footsteps warning
all who would approach
to beware. Those who did
not heed, bewitched by her
beauty, overlooking the
viper's sting of her tongue
soon experienced their own
spirit shrivelling in the heat
of contempt she showered
with gratuitous abandon
upon all who might dare
to challenge her treasured
suffering throughout a life
sadly not worth the trouble.