Tortured Man of Screams

Oh, tortured man of screams I heard your piercing screeches from a far Smelt that moldy wooden bridge as it creaked As you held your hollow cheeks in your palm On the path you’d traversed, two shadows haunted you so Were they the beast of your past, The golden flood you’d unleashed on the itsy-bitsy spider of a town Or the sky you’d burned a raging Bloody Mary Was that dark current a salty river of your sorrow O! the horror that could not be undone Determined to flee, why did you falter in your step What dreadful thing slit your lips apart, Bulged your eyes to saucers Was it the absence of curls, ringlets, and locks When you grasped a smooth skull That unsettled your soul