Halls of the Dark Muse

The Catherine Wheel was a method of torture and punishment in the Middle Ages.

It was named so becasue according to ledgend St. Catherine of Alexandria was executed upon the device which is also known as a Breaking Wheel.

Catherine Wheel

Battered and broken
you string me up
lashed upon the spokes
for all the world to see
(for what I ask)
so I may be made to dance
in mockery to your tune?

But against sun's hellfire
the flesh picked off my bones
my spirit will not crack
the name of your god dead
upon my lips.

I beg not his mercy
let him look down and laugh
(is he laughing at me or laughing at you?)
while in my agony
I draw strength in the last
act of my defiance.

My soul ablaze
from my high perch of death and pain
it is you whom I pity
dancing in the shadow
of my suffering.

You are small men
not only from this vantage point
but small in mind, deed, and soul
and I smile in my last hours.

You have made me grater
than I was before
in your efforts
to diminish me

my memory will live on
as you are forgotten
tread upon in the dust of time.