Taxidermist
You a ferrous metal and I a magnet
Drawn to you by design,
Yet sin degrades all
With it’s terror and it’s squall.
On my worst days
When I listen to the liar
Saying “It’s okay its natural
Like breathing
Or seething.”
Desires denied
Sorrows multiplied.
I shower and feel the skin come off
Everytime hoping the next layer
Will be thicker and less porous
Keeping out the slithering vapours
That slide in so easily.
You told me I’m brand new
But why do I have these phantom pains
From a spine I no longer have?
For you demanded that too…
Tonight don’t let the darkness bite.
Sometimes the prescription for these lenses
Is so strong I can’t even hear you,
My fingers trip over themselves
Can’t ever get the whole story out.
Why are all old men bent over?
Do we all hide our magic?
I am pierced not as though by arrows
But as though by poetry
Run through to the crux of the matter.
The matter of matter
Of what matters,
Do I?
That which upsets me inspires me most
And it’s true tragedy
Brings a man to the surface.
For years now I’ve been far beyond the surface
Can you place me back beneath?
Give me a mermans lungs and let me not choke.
I am both hope and cheer
I am both charm and jeer.
I feel the spectre anticipating
I can hear it berating
And I see it slipping in and out of me
I read the putrid pleasantries
It writes on the corridors of my mind.
Ghost, demon, ghoul whatever name you’ve chosen
Allow me to address you directly this day
Do you not see me?
Look me in the eyes
Hold my gaze I dare you!
I am but the slain wolf
Of greatest hunters
The master taxidermist
Stitching me back together with sterner stuff.
Good or evil a wolf still has teeth
Come now and let us do battle!
I grow tired of dreading the looking glass
Of fleeing the hour where shadows lengthen
Like fear with nightly growth spurts.
That particular kind of weariness
That makes life bleed heavily.
Coffee isn’t enough to hold my hand
To prop open my eyelids
With tent pegs meant for home.
I require victory
I thirst for conquest
Over strongholds in my heart,
Then I may rest.
You have birthed in me a rage
The greatest of the age
You’ve been biding your time
And committing your crime
But I have not been idle
I have known a donor of strength
That will make me victorious.
Come now bring your weapons
See if it does you any good
A man of my word you will soon learn
Light too can bite.
I by might imbued me
Will fight till bones protrude thee.
- Vagabond Prophet
Copyright © Vaughan Wesley | Year Posted 2018
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