9.
They warned me when he came ...
slinking onto the shoreline like the drowned.
He stalked the Anduin in decomposition
a rotting body beneath a log.
I heard the splash, but I didn't listen.
I thought this was the best I could do.
They said, "... he is full of wriggling things,"
because they knew that maggots ate him.
I did not know about this, then.
Later, I could see what they meant.
He constructed light so that it veiled his skin.
But it was strictly a surface thing
Beneath the thin transparency,
ten thousand worms were writhing ...
They could not help but be themselves.
He could not help now who he was.
I was angered at first sight.
But then I finally pitied him.
For this world is constructed of queer light
and things we would not have close to us.
How often they crept up and tried to get in.
We must take up positions of long defense,
while treating the Gollum with compassion.
So I did not slay him when I had the chance.
For I was not to deal out death and judgment.
That was left to a power greater than us both.
