Bows and Crossbows

His life ended with one twang of my bow

 

He drew back the bow and took careful aim at his target

 

The arrow took her in the knee and she crumpled to the ground

 

He broke the shaft off and pulled the rest of the arrow clean through

 

The arrow took her in the arm, pinning her to the tree

 

One creak of the wood, one twang of the string, and it went flying

 

Everything with the bow had to be one shot, one kill

 

It was hunting season all over again‌—‌only this time, the prey walked on two legs

 

Dumbstruck, he stared at the feathered shaft protruding from his chest

 

He pulled back his bow and the sky rained death

 

No arrow was faster, no kill cleaner than by his hand

 

A feathered shaft sprouted from his eye as if by some dark magic

 

Taken through the neck, the sentry toppled silently over the wall

 

He had been impaled on a forest of arrows, yet still clung feebly to life

 

An arrow through the heart ended her love

 

Bow in hand, he stalked through the long, dark woods

 

By the time the archer was through, the man was a human pincushion

 

The arrows screamed and the sky grew black with death

 

A rain of arrows fell upon their heads

 

There was that awful twang and then the arrow found him

 

A snapped bowstring was the least of his worries

 

Whizzing, screaming death flew in those feathered shafts

 

The whiz and twang of the bow brought death

 

The well-arrowed corpse tumbled from the wall into the waiting moat

 

The shaft stuck out of him like an exclamation point

 

The arrow's fletching was unmistakably eagle's feather

 

The arrows flew overhead, thick as thieves in the night

 

Arrows fell in a cold steel rain

 

The archer's quiver was nearly exhausted

 

He planted arrows in the dirt in a semicircle, so they'd be ready to fire

 

The bolt struck the man in the chest and he went down gasping

 

The crossbow strummed its deadly chord

 

A bolt shot him through the heart

 

The drawstring hummed, spitting death

 

He pulled back the heavy drawstring and slid the bolt into place

 

She watched her prey through the scope of her crossbow

 

Crossbow clutched firmly to her breast, she vowed courage

 

She pulled the trigger and watched the bolt strike him dead

 

The bullet-headed bolt bit into his neck

 

A barbed bolt transfixed him

 

She raised the crossbow pistol and aimed for his chest

 

His finger convulsed on the trigger, driving the bolt home

 

He grabbed a bolt to reload

 

The crossbow bolt skimmed by, startling him

 

Her shot spiked him to the tree

 

The bolt punched through his chest with a sickly thunk