Ego

By Joshua Lefort

Cease to bleach my blackened lips 

So that they may reflect the silence that I voice.

Bandage my sight and gorge my appetite

So that my carnality may take no hold of me.

Shadowed by the sombrous clouds

That billow from the chimney of my existence, 

I placidly stand well-heeled 

Befogged in my palpable fillings.

I think not, but feel

In the shrouding steam that exhales.

Wrapped in a self-consuming ego,

I wear a masquerade justified for societal locomotion.

Conflicted in the pursuit of selfhood, 

O Relinquish me from the voracious 

Beast incarnate that which I embody.

Imprisoned within the stronghold of my mind,

He drifts about like a disembodied kite,

Nipped taut by the braided rope of my identity.

I walk in tandem gait on a tightrope 

Riveted in both truth and lies,

Lost in the deafening silence,

I’m powerless to him

Who’s name I share.

Should I wait for him to reap what he has sowed?

It’s a cannibalistic force that cannot be reasoned!

Grievous scythe in hand, I cut at the stem,

To reveal the putrefying skeleton that I am.

In thrall to death’s clasp,

I sit in discomfort within the matrix of rebirth,

A final death-sealing kiss to

Put an end to what you see

And whatever is left of me.

By Joshua Lefort