all opinions considered
and prejudices aside,
we are separate from
the things that move us-
the very things we deemed
so worthy of warfare

no longer will hard-won victories
be treated as lullabies for
the un-baptised

she has notions in her eyes
so soothing at first
but increasingly toxic
as those who came before
dismay

moving forward,
marching towards this lovely isolation
so soft and insincere,
pale digits struggling to surface
and to become

the sound of this declaration lost
in the onslaught
she waits and is weightless
the breath that she takes is
one in a million

a million excuses leave my lips
but don’t attest to
the absence of sin

(a total distortion of that
which i know to be true)

and like a child
I stare and
ask questions of myself-
of both myselves

“When did this happen?”

a pause, a breath is
held close- clung to-
as if by exhaling,
it’ll doom us all…

and then, finally-

“It didn’t happen.
It always was.”

Without a doubt
lost within a
withered moment -
there’s safe and then
there’s safer still

Torn apart by
these tiny acts of violence,
beyond compare
beyond reproach

Accused and yet compliant
saintly secrets burn softly-
ablaze with the passing
of hours

fermenting angels
softly slaughtered

This room remembers
eyes like the morning after-
safer from a distance

Spiraled sideways
the seventh sinner sleeps forever
such a tale of misery

Unforseen and
urgent pleadings
ancient in my hands and
fading

she brings out the red in me.

old scores settle with
the dust- so thick
on sleeping books

You’ve just witnessed
your first death-
How do you feel?

sliding fatal into
water when the light flickers
so thickly
we are constant
we are structured
we are damned