His eyes are locked on you,
Daring you to flinch.
Everybody's starring,
But you cannot give an inch.
Everything you have--
Everything that matters--
Has  been melted down and made
Into your armor, now battered.
The fight for him is just for sport,
A way to gain some scraps of honor.
The fight for you is for a life--
Consequences far more dire.
You cannot turn and run,
There is no option of surrender.
The loss of souls or souls conserved
Won't be how victory is measured.
Neither choice would end this fight.
You're fighting everyday.
And ending confrontation
Won't take that fight away.
The odds are stacked against you,
You'll die before the fighting's done.
But you will stand your ground
Even if you're the only one.
For it wasn't choice that put you here
But rather unlucky birth.
And this fight will take your life
Even if that's not what it's worth.

I can't speak of tender touch--
Hands sweep, lips brush--
Ever closer, that's close enough.

I can't describe you close to me--
Sweet breath, buckled knees--
No further, stop please.

I can feel the tempting sway—
Blushing cheeks, flirtatious gaze—
Wanting you, just not that way.

Please love me regardless?

Door slams-- it wasn't me
Echo of a memory

Haunted past means haunted home
Down the halls the spirits roam

Shadows dance across these walls
Screams running down the halls

Demons whisper in my head
Monsters play beneath the bed

Skeletons in closets
Make for restless ghosts
To all my long lost nightmares
I am now playing host

Darkness, now, taking flight--
Scattered by the coming light.
Frightened by the rising sun,
Watching as the shadows run.

Secrets stumble off your lips--
Into patient ears your hushed words slip.
It starts with friends but ends with foes,
Watching as the secrets go.

Simple solids breed fearful air--
Our own breath blown into terror.
Onto the ignorant the facade stumbles,
Watching as the whole world crumbles.

We are spinning!
Spinning!
Spinning!
Yes, we are tumbling down.

It is thrilling!
Thrilling!
Thrilling!
Up until we hit the ground.

Quantified to the last--
Every freckle, each fluttering lash.

To the debt of necessity I am tethered;
I can't afford life's priceless treasures.

Calculated: now are numbered
Even that which philosophy wonders.

My love, my life, my ambivalent faith:
Measured out to the hundredths place.

Reproduced for mass consumption--
Trivialized by the deduction.

Weigh my heart, buy my soul,
Celebrate the dream you stole.

What words would I have written then
If my fate had lied within?
Stories remembered? Studied lines?
Or eroded by passing time?