You can unwind years’ worth of therapy
and medication with a single sentence.

When breathing will only bring pain,

The kind of pain that is emotional,

You have no choice that seems rational

But to exert all force to feign

Some sort of spirit that seems real

To everyone around you.

Only the slightest few

Will understand how you really feel.

That small percentage of folk

Might even only include one

Who will straighten your backbone

And your right to whine revoke.

Forever you’ll have someone to defend,

As she has become your best friend.

The smoke circled halo,
Bent smiles and summoned demons,
Brimstone come a reverent silent
And obeyed sort of way.

I let my left eye avoid.

I’d let my right dream,
As I munched skewered calf,
Innocent, slaughtered, salivated
And my only excuse – Survival.

Toe-to-toe with
Home-field advantage
I nodded from shadows
To the one who scented venom;

Lace tucked slightly thigh,
She’d wink and hours later,
The demon would meet the Devil
And she’d devour –

All I’d known,
All I’d ever know
And all we’d ever be.