---

I have ripped apart my body

To show the world.

In spite, in degradation,

in calling out your name.

These faces, bleak and tender

Shedding tears and fragile.

The scent of failure

Seeps from my skin.

And when I reach the end

My pockets filled with dust

I will speak, untethered,

“These words won’t be worth

Their weight in gold.”

Corrupt in solitude

This monolith in darkness.

I am enslaved to

This statue buried at sea.

We ache for pleasures

Over discipline, over virtue

over purity, over decency.