Crumbling in Public

Shield weighted

My shame and paranoia

You blink I bleed

Please don’t laugh

I keep trying

To not do it

Again

The smoke that coats the floor

Issuing marching orders

And I’ve never rejected

The root

Of decay

Or depravity

Those who know

Shudder

And burn the book

Beyond salvation

In the aftermath

Of too far gone

Dope fueled

Fantasies

That if fleshed

Would find

Me a dead man

On the receiving end

Of the denim

How can you not

Amend or destroy

The compulsive

Nature of a man

Who begs to be excused

From his own

Orgy of fiends?

David Burdett

5/01/21