My mind reels back to that moment
When fear's icy grip took hold
A sudden trembling seized my frame
My whole being testified to the panic's claim

I grasped the microphone, a disaster unfolding
My words, a jumbled mess, or so it seemed
Was I speaking or mumbling? I couldn't tell
My mind, a maze of self-doubt, a trickster's spell

In that intense moment, I wished to be
Glued to my seat, silent and free
No care to speak, no need to face
The fear that gripped me, a suffocating space

I listen with stapled lips
Waiting
My predator, prey, and companion
I don't know if it's safe to rip the silence out of me
I can't trust myself to move
So I sit as this black and silver storm cloud builds up inside me
Threatening to tear me to shreds if I continue to stay silent
And I stay silent
The words ache at the back of my throat
And I refuse to say them
Better to embrace my sticky metal suicide
Than the predator slash through my flesh and veins
Better to waste away in my lyric starvation
Than let a beast **** me

Introductions are never easy.
Mousy boy.

Chains.
Ankles shackled.
Lungs rattle, relentless battle.
Loose phlegm, filling falling castles.
Under no pretense.
Moat; a barrier of defense.

Where voice is a drawbridge
Oscillating flow.
Open bandage.
Darkest window.