---

Betrayal leaves a trail of shellshocked slants

Chronically unprepared, suffer experience

Fastened to the bonds of rancid matter

Never short of wounds to cauterize

Inured to the pain of the slash

But still tepid blood escapes in thick streamlets

Some speak to their shadows, finding answers in mute longing

Some yearn for the dawn to blind themselves

The lean white hands of fate

Unfurled a storm that rent our souls to pale remains

The fading warmth of an emptied womb is giving way

To the chill spreading from uncaring graves

Are you like them

Clinging to futile plans

Sifting for solace with ever shortening breath

The fractured pavement returns no leaking warmth

Face the gaping emptiness, perpetuity’s idiotic stare

Heralding failure with words dripping with umbrage

To walk these dreary dales carrying the knowledge of exile

A choir of maledictions rises like a spear

Driven through the breast of the vortical night