The presence of ghosts
Stand on your shoulders
Taking turns with their insults
Each of them a little colder
Their opinions spread like wild fire
And they gather behind each other's opinions
like an empire
They haven't gathered facts
they only go off rumors
As they rapidly breed
from your silence

Spreading darkly from within
A cloud filled my breast
And slowly pulling me in
Ground me into the dust, depressed

On the dead earth below me
A dripping black hand
Struggled fiercely up to free
The shadows of the demon band

Others nearby glanced my way
Smiled at me, or cursed
With a venomous red spray
Fed my dark and demon-made thirst

Looking behind them I saw
On great poison wings
Creatures, crimson mouths all raw
From speaking unspeakable things

If we had courage to boast
Allied, we could beat
The hellspawned, bloodthirsty ghosts
That hungrily follow our feet

The other side of the coin
Fearing the unknown
No one dares to join
We each have demons of our own

and with their hands of words
they reach towards
my thoughts to slice them
to widen the cut
and tear open
my intricacies
digging for spice and mud

as you unsheathe analysis
I devour all the violence
of voyeuristic
snaking
searing intentions

I will not allow
this foul transparency
to be my autopsy

The ghost of spread lips
will haunt the house
inside your skull
because
there's nothing wrong
with being who I was

as eva smokes cigars

      ^.      ^
as Eva & Joseph
in their ware of blue
solemnly
have the dills seed
and their clouds brought reign
but she'd vex their hearts in church again
why all is for one

as she's
so felt this
way too
but her
slits between
thighs array
with shirts
that she
skirt her  
ludicrous
beliefs that
really miss
tan lines
round her
gluteus maximus

Facing the wall,
On the edge of tears,
Only her shoulders speak.
Her right foot times the tension
Of the moment
In strained silence.

Across the way,
A friend, an adversary
Sits in shamed symmetry.
Her chin takes refuge
In her hand-
A hand that can’t contain the anger, the embarrassment, the fear.
A hand that hides the mouth that spoke too freely,
But now says nothing.