I worked for a year in that office
The they tore up my constitution
And replaced it with a plaque on the wall
Called me a hero and scheduled my euthanization

Don't threaten me with Ahab's death, that's romantic
Because purity of heart is to will one thing

Don't tempt me with Monte Cristo's fate
Or Joseph's state around year 8
I wanted love, I wanted acceptance

So pick me up Zarathustra
And drop me in the earth
Or else the sea, but first the fire
While I try to find some worth

I've been stealing from the sun
Squint-whittling spears of light
That sink into my pupils like molding pins
And come alive like tapeworms
Carving a writhing yolk
Pulsating against paper-thin opalescence
A pre-amble to the impossible puzzle

Have you ever heard
A catastrophe at the other end of a telephone?
The shriek and silence
Of unknown violence
The wail and moan of a dial tone
Phonetic kinesis corked!
Words twisted to the snap
Wrung to the crack
A digit bridge bedlam
Calcination of lispy, nasal, rasp, and husk
Bellow whispers fanning ash
A static sting and the ears go black

Manufactured certainty
Is not make-believe
It's something much more horrifying
A universal need

A rationalized worldview depends on a bubble
Some say ignorance is worth all the trouble
Me? I'm an imperious vicarious
Phaethon without ever touching the chariot

Make me saint of the excuse
I'll color in the black and white
Justify all non-systemic abuse
The oppressed aren't bad
They're just misused

I know the saint of folly
Like a brother or a mood
He's a misfired love that crash-landed
Strangled by a lesser brood

He found me with a gaping chest wound
And cauterized me with a brand
Called it collateral damage
But when it came time to deliver
The wax seal was deemed to beautiful
It was decided my contents should remain a mystery

The vowels have no breath
The consonants have no spine
The intention never was
What wasn't never does
What doesn't ever wants
A paper airplane in a fiery crash
No black box, 10 seconds to ash
I'd rather be put through a shredder
And when mania sets in - pieced together
Or at least confetti for some wedding
Or a kenneled kittens bedding
But, alas, I'll simply decompose
A muffled scream, a frantic ghost