You look but do not see
You laugh yet are never truly free
Your tears are surreptitious yet speak loudly
You are shy and wear this introvertism proudly
You say “I’m fine” while collapsing into a pile
You experience ceaseless agony with ever a smile

You look but do not see
**The complexity that is me

Why tempt fate,
when you can simply conquer it?

Fatalism is for fools
they walk the path of submission
the victims of destiny’s attrition

Stand with radiance and resolve
speak sweet words free of doubt
for you are no puppet tangled in strings

So swift to burn second chances
but casual cruelties do not equal honesty

Strength at the expense of others
is not strength at all

I've walked into the dark woods
It lies obliterated, charred
never as damaged as the ones who are scarred

Wells of patience are not frequently found
steadiness is rare and grows from the heart
judgement has been bled from my veins

And treading the path of truth, my art

Universal Acceptance over Tolerance
because one champions all paths
and the other only keeps distinctions between them

Universal Acceptance over Tolerance
because one seeks truth in every teaching
and the other simply looks instead of seeing

Universal Acceptance over Tolerance
because to accept means embracing beauty in any form
and to tolerate means keeping this beauty at arm's length

Come now, my friends, let us all be wrapped up
This cloak of lies smothers us so pleasantly
Our eyes are always closed and yet they see everything so clear
The moon shines bright on the thoughts ruminating in our minds
Sometimes our sight is free of the cloak long enough to get a glimpse
A small look at the façade we inhabit so eagerly
Trapped in a cage, with smiles on our faces, we watch the world carry on
**Waiting to escape

The Stag trots across a bleached horizon
Howling into the wind with echoes that curdle blood
Its form is liquid nightmare, drenching snow in ebony flood

Wispy vapor flares around antlers of pure, lucid black
Moonbeams shimmer off plumage fraught with drear
Violet feathers assure that bizarreness the Ravenstag does not lack
Dark fangs ravage human flesh, infecting tissue with fear

The Wendigo glides past fallen pine and split oak
Its viscous hooves leave tracks of unearthly essence
Through white deserts flecked with red and bodies left to soak

Killable

Can I be your antagonist?
I promise you’ll hate me
For I am a cheeky little monster
An arch-nemesis lurking in the recess
Of your mind
I confess to being obsessed
With earning your contempt
Would a lovely sight it would be
If your gorgeous grin became a symbol of sin
Snatching you from the sky up so high
A pure angel whose wings started to darken
A heroine who suddenly lived on the edge
The rush! The explosion!
To know that I made your good character decay
That my touch lead to your corrosion
How beautiful that look on your face will be
As it fills with the realization
That you’re no embodiment of nobility
Simply a villain
Just like me!