Smoldering
The dimly burning wick
Bruised and smashed Not shattered Doldrums drumming I’m losing the beat Exhausted and sapped By this vampiric world Success is a phantom Only the truly depraved can win this game Perhaps that is the real victory Trying to survive this gauntlet With your soul intact Those who care too much Are ripped to shreds Devoured by ghouls Buried alive in a mudslide of empathy Stricken down while they smile and forget you I feel the cold bars Growing tighter around me As I fatten and decay with age Caged and enraged like a rat Since before my memory began Where is that vitality I used to enjoy? When I would wake up and breath in Two lungs full of the fresh day When I was a conquerer Now hiding behind walls of worry Crushed like a rotten peach on the wet dirt Lifeblood nectar oozing out of me Carrying on to carry on I haven’t rested in years And I barely remember how I am a candle in the wind An ice cube on hot pavement A reed bruised by beatings The burning bridge I’ll be carried on Until I perish My will and my pain Are the gasoline on my bonfire When you’re holding onto the rope And the chasm stretches out underneath Your palms perspire You may let go But it is better to struggle It is better to fight Fight and die Or fight and live This is the mystery of us This is the mystery Contemplated by eaters of the dead Drinkers of blood Those who hide themselves among us Consumers of dying Clever but stupid these fiends Will never comprehend This is how we win