Before Gollum had tasted
the power of The Ring,
when he still had family with whom
to sing in the Gladden Fields, when
things like friendship, honor, love
and joy would bring
all the happiness of spring,
do you suppose he considered how a
ring – a small, pretty, shining
thing could change a man?
Did he think his first
drink of power would be
a thing so easily imbibed,
how it changed
a man inside
from what he’d been
to something he despised?
Before it split his soul in two,
before his craving really grew
into a wolf howling at
the moon in the darkness
of the Misty Mountains,
did he think he might
one day loathe the light?
Did he consider
wrong from right
or did he only ask for more?
Did he grieve his own lost soul
as his father surely did when
he crawled into his hole
to find that bloody ring?
And when he clawed his way
over friends and good intentions,
and he claimed The Ring his own,
he’d lost what really mattered
and died in flames alone.
Do you think as he lay dying,
precious ring clutched in his hand,
he wished he’d never seen it?
Did he ever understand?
