Me or Them

It starts with a lonely blackness,

Icey and empty;

A tightening noose:

My heart’s sentry.

My glance darts away

From its chilling eyes.

But I’ve glimpsed its true frame:

It is Hatred’s guise.

Yet Hatred holds my hand so true,

While I could never count on you.

As time goes on I gasp and choke

From resentful persecution.

Smoke and turmoil evoked,

Confusing my constitution.

Then finally stills the riot

As I rest my head down.

It whispers in the quiet:

I wear Indignation’s false crown.

Silence you! I shall rather be flayed,

Then of my crown be depraved!

As I age I carry on my shoulders

A lead weight I can’t bear.

Punitive boulders

That the world has put there.

When I stop for a breath

A finger is pointed at me:

It is your own Regret

That bolts you to misery.

No, I cannot, I refuse to believe,

That I hold the answer to my own relief.

I shrivel and shake;

It is everyone’s fault.

My composition is quaked,

So I rest in my vault.

In this safe prison

A guard fortifies me.

You see Self-pity has risen

And thrown out the key.

Lock them all out and keep them away,

Set fire to them if they dare stay!

My final hour my heart in my throat

As I fall through the sky in dismay.

I think to myself I did hear them gloat

As they came and jerked out my dais.

Their betrayal so stings,

But they pushed me to fly.

Self-depracation clipped my wings,

And now I shall die.

At last I fall with one companion,

Hatred was my loyal lanyard.