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I breathe fire that warms your squeezing heart

Sharpened steel slides through my torso

Chains pull taught, choking life

Sucking poisoned air

While the only sunlight cuts my rind

Slowly inside I rot and quiver

While you smile, driving needles through my mind

Never before have I kissed the swollen hand

Broken from all the beatings I’d endured

I am a slave to you, not by choice but in calling

Screaming inside for distant reprieve

Excuse me as I exit my hopeless body

Through flesh-wounds deeper than I once thought

Abandon life that I once wrought