Then I’m back in the lab
Like the ghost
Of Ahab
As the coast
Is consumed
In the gloom
Fog of mad
And out from it emerges
Convergence
In form
Of the soon
Be forgotten
Undying
Reborn
From the torn
More asunder
Than plausibly
Posed
Like the posies
In bloom
Where no sign of life
Grows

The war  
The war
It’s always the war
Determines how the map
Gets redrawn
By the board
So reform it all
Storm the hall
Normalize gore
And procure its
Pervasive
Inflation’s
Reward

Take apart
Of me
And what do you get
Just the heart
Of a recluse
Awaiting regret
An excuse
For why I
On my failures
Rely
Justify
My abhorrent
Transgressions
Deny

No flag
No anthem
No country
Remains
In the aftermath
Rapturous
History stains
We will just be
Statistics
An unfulfilled
Wish list
Accords
And concurrent
Perfidious
Pacts
Like a carbon offset
In the form of an axe
No more acts
We need action
Not actors
And stages
For theaters of war’s
All our avarice
Wages

Every night is cold,
It eats my soul,
It lets me go
And though unknown to you
Embitters
As it withers
Me in woe
A freezing rain,
Unceasing pain,
An endless
Friendless
Winter day
An empty space,
Estranged embrace
Encased
In icy
Psyche
Wastes

As dark as I am
I am still
But a man
Understand
There’s a line
I must draw
In the sand
Of abandonment
Cast
To the castles
Ashore
To the pages
Adorned
In my love Nevermore

Every night since
It’s subliminal
Hints
It’s the criminal
Underworld’s
Underling
Prince
That evinces
His regal
Enfeebled ambition
With pride
His exile
Erstwhile form’s
Normal disguise
Circumscribed
To confined
To confide in himself
For how could they relate
Even less
Could they help