I cannot contain darkness when
the sun doesn’t shine.
I can barely contain it while it does.

Like a coward he will not fight me.
Instead he’s in the brush
and firing rounds from fifty yards away
while I stand here alone,
an easy target on a **** line
watching, waiting, weary of
the fire he brings yet
I never see his face.

the day will come
when I will be consumed,
the veil will fall
and what I hide will bleed,

reveal the angst beneath the guise like
a ***** king behind a mask of gold;
his kingdom knows the truth
but looks away.

A thousand masks cannot contain his pain.

How difficult it is to pretend
to have it all together,

even harder
to fight an enemy not seen.