Sometimes the only way;
To get through the pain;
Is to give the price; you must pay.
So pour on the agony; let it rain.

Turn it into a crucible; forge yourself;
Don’t let anything touch you ever.
Become iron; become steel itself;
And you will be hurt never

She's spilling
forbidden wine
on pieces of gauze
taped to a thigh.
Butcher herself,
like meat on a platter
for bite sized brains
to digest.

She is stainless steel teeth,
she is a strained voice,
she is a fighter,
tired,
but resilient
and giving it
her
all.

thoughts and innovations trapped by steel bars of prejudices and doubts, will never be able to come out

stumbling bowlegged through the last subway car,
loose-fit black rags bandaging frail limbs,
face twisted in a permanent scowl,
matted grey hair jutting from a flaky scalp,
she jangles her paper cup of coins
each flail of the arm a sharp crescendo;
I flinch.

She extends her hand with a gaze that says: pity me;
I cannot look. I don’t want anything to stir in me,
my own pain is already too heavy,

but --

here they are: spoiled thoughts wafting over me like the waves
of her robust stench: warmth
between my thighs,
tattoos
bounding up thick muscular arms that aim at me in such earnest that my disillusionment melts away, and I am paralyzed
by the lure of pheromones and the smell of skin
which doesn’t quite leave you after you leave him.

And then truth clangs hard in my chest:

but her bones are made of steel!
So who am I to look away?
Maybe if something were to crash into me,
I’d pulverize
into
dust.

jet flying past
the open window -
tons of flesh and steel

The nether hells that fill with fear
Shall ever be allowed to reign.
Forever would I tarry here
In circumstance that brings me pain.

For in the forging flame of hate,
Is purified the steel of man,
To hammer out a course for fate
And callouses the heart and hand.

Awaken now to chance's curse
Behold and rage against the lot
That life has deemed you to be worth
And then we die to ripe and rot,
Our steel conquering Earth