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Loud enough

To shake the foundations of your faith

Deep enough

To leave a chasm in your wake

Proud enough

Forsaken by the wretched congregation

Bleed enough

To summon the powers of creation

Each abuse of power

Brings you one step

Closer to ruin

Virtue rooted in marshland

You hold no water

It washes you away

The only way to

Quell your ghost is

To greet death as a friend

This is our forest

I never left

Conjoined forever

And still bereft

This is our prison

I cannot leave

Condemned to serve you as I grieve

(Branches bend into a cage

Moonlit shadows on a stage

Shackled to a broken man

My blood on your hands)

As I scream “you are not real”

You whisper the same into my ear

Every step we take together

Poisons the soil upon which we trod

Wallow in your shallow grave

Deer tread upon the fallow ground

Their antler velvet shed in blood

Ancient symbols on the trees

Take all that you can

Give nothing but hate

Hexagram of blood and moss

Deer tread upon the hallowed ground

Their teeth laid out in reverie

A ritual to celebrate your passing

Take all that you can

Give nothing but hate

The teeth

The blood

The moss

The soil

(This burnt offering

Given to the earth

Separated I

Am the sacrifice)

The only way to

Quell your ghost is

To greet death as a friend