Delusions of Insignificance

A gift recoiled from:
the ears of the curious
set to the door
at just the wrong time.

When my feral side
gives them a what-for,
they repeat an ancient
hatred of me.

I am garbage, trash
to my denialist audience,
who entertains itself
thinking I think to know what's in store.

Gets Kicked Only When Down

Is it all you thought it would be?
All you dreamed of?
The spider queen sits
fanning herself
in her papa-san throne
bamboo, a web of silk.
"There is nothing else here --
why do you look?"
I said you said I had to lose something.
Perhaps my self-deception
cast out of its nook.
Drop the act and be free.
See how long this took?

Game Run To Ground

Samsara to Hell
with Virgil I fell
and talked with a man
upturned headfirst in shit.
He gurgled a reply
when I asked him why
but I ignored it
to ponder my own sins instead.
Enemy in the mirror
he is jealous of you.
For three years
he marveled at what you do to you.
When at last he failed
to match your skill
he picked up a gun
and said, "Fine
I'll just kill you
and see how it's done."
Snakes in the grass
should not seek one out;
when they do,
they mimic a human shout.

Animal Sinlessness

Costume changes and consequences --
I am saved by my enemy's
lies he tells himself of me.
I correct them compulsively:
murder versus suicide,
the Ides of March
have thunder thighs
and never stop heralding
their approach.
The man-size cockroach
my charge swore
leapt out at us
hissed to disappear
behind a Cheshire grin.
Gunfire and the din
of inexpert punishment:
Am I the final teacher of insults?
The only adult
in a room filled with children?
Anguish and pain
as delectation.
Is hope writhing
in the bottom of a box
the sociopath stores his masks in?
Pandora snaps it shut and swoons --
I've yet to see a man on the moon
and too soon knew the lash
interstellar travelers in a flash
wielded; they stopped short
when this white trash done sung his tune.
How many died upon being told
that help is on the way?
"No pun intended,"
sneered the man
who put those victims
where he should have been.