Cut Me Down...

...like a beaten banner on a battlement,

Tortured into retirement.

...like the Christmas lights in the limbs

Tangled and twisted by the relentless winter wind.

...like an arrogant reprobate

Who has earned his place in humankind's hate.

...like the old dead tree out back

Destined for ash after turning black.

...like a dictator effigy engulfed in fire,

Turning and twisting in the gyre.

...like my hanging dead weight

Tethered by guilt and fate.

Cut me down

Into a heap on the cold, hard ground.