What Lies Beneath

 

Festering within
an oozing wound of the soul
Attempts to blot it out,
stamp it out,
Failing.…
it persists…
Festers…
taking its toll.
A sacrifice of dreams,
on an altar of hope,
Abused and advantaged with no remorse
and in silence, soul weeping in fury
at everything lost,
at what little was gained
at exorbitant cost
and seeing it all,
all in vain…
the happiness, the persistence,
the struggle, the resistance,
the surrender…
the pain…

What could be summed up in simple words,
is not proper to know.
But what lies beneath,
never to pass over the tongue or teeth
a wretched realization
as a rolling wave
to drown the heart,
 and drag the soul to a tearful grave.

What shell then, is this?
That it breathes and persists?
It is but a man….

Or at least….was once.