Pain

Pain greeted me bombastically and abruptly; with no hint of subtlety or remorse… There were no mutinous whispers in the quivering candlelight; nor debatable discourse… It conquered me immediately… Disgraced, I was forced to kneel… And with a pretentious grin, pieces of my soul it began to steal… Its dreadful face is the last thing I see at night; and the first when I awake… Its devotion is almost reassuring, but its motives still opaque… I escaped down to the drugstore last Monday night… I asked for some elixir, but all the drugs were locked up tight… So I sat down on the sidewalk; defeated back against the wall… My pain sat down beside me and offered up some alcohol…