Canto I (the past)

I walk the grounds of earth alone in search

Of a wiser soul, more knowledgeable

Than thine. From the depths, the creature does lurch,

And it lets out an inconsolable

Cry. In that moment, I know who I see,

who lives in a world so inhospitable.

A stupid little girl begging to be

Set free into a world filled with horror.

Chained back, speaks, “I beg thee, please have mercy.”

Avoiding eye contact, I speed past her

Swiftly, desperately trying to bury.

The things I’ve seen, come to me by whisper,

Leave my memories as all but merry.

Done stumbling over my thoughts, I awake

At the edge of my own cemetery.

The fear creeps around my neck as a snake,

I don’t want to remember what I’ve done.

The pain of my past is too much to take.

The haunting of which I’m the only one

To survive. All the people who have failed

To endure the trials I have overcome.

All of the paths of my future: impaled;

All of our sins: seen and mutilated;

All of my mistakes are forlorn exhaled.

All those souls I pity were ill-fated,

The ones I loved turned to mist in my hands,

My hopes and dreams, before me, castrated.