a mouth full of cavities
and lungs full of algae infested waters
from sitting too long with no 
escape
from what traps us in these ominous, dank 
gorges.

gaunt faces with sunken eyes
from nights too haunted to sleep
swollen tongues with words unspoken
from submission to
silence
in the face of constant
deceit.

words
left in the veil of fog that masks the ground
every morning over the once green pastures,
stripping the color from the world,
leaving everything
grey 
with the corruption
of what once was
what still is
and what will
remain.

we lose ourselves in the unapproachable
reality
of what we have created
what we were born into
what we will never
escape.

we lose ourselves.
we lose ourselves.
we are all
gone.

we were always empty anyways.
walking amongst the hollow men.
we are the hollow men.
we
create
the hollow men.

we weren't always the hollow men.

tell me how to fill these holes that 
are found in our teeth
in our lungs
in our
souls.

where did all the substance go?