Illumination,
Not only lighting my way
Opening the pathos for my ethos
My memory is on full display.

Feel the course of knowledge
Coarsely exfoliating my pretense,
Cognizant of the folly—
Of never seeing through to the end of the show.

Illumination,
Not only chases the shadows,
But shows off my deep scars,
Rooted systems of traumatic plants
In a garden, I hide behind secrets.

Sacred thoughts,
Priceless feelings,
Caught in vine-riddled ramparts
I can’t be bothered to open a draw bridge
Can’t trust that the enemy isn’t calling from inside,
Chasing me like a phantom,
All my pain in tandem, nerve death like a bad tooth.

Illumination,
Not only a granter of knowledge,
But a memento mori of a past life,
Reminded of innocence at it’s last rites
Buried so far beneath the core of the world,
I’d explode like a neutron star over and over
To relive a single moment over.

Illumination,
Illuminate all that is dark in me,
Warm me with your cruel heat,
And make a better man of me.