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Echoing footsteps call to me
Deep in my fortress of stone
Through the dark, I smell terror
Behind the bravado

Some would call me lost
I am where I choose to be
I know every mossy corridor
This labyrinth is my domain

Those who seek a monster
Are sure to find a beast
Lurking inside the maze
Deformed and depraved

Despair
Devour the brave and the foolish
Wickedness
Beats in the breast of the paladin

Dried blood upon the bricks
Tread the path of self-destruction
Bring me your heart filled with hate

Look deep into the mirror
So-called hero
Recognize the horns are your own
Bloodlust transformed
Parody of righteousness
Crusader of disgust

Disturber of my peace
What glory do you hope to gain?
Misguided quest for confrontation
Mercenary scum

Step over the clattering bones
Of those who’ve tried before
In these lightless depths
I hold court

Those who seek a monster
Are sure to find a beast
Lurking inside the maze
Deformed and depraved

Despair
Devour the brave and the foolish
Wickedness
Beats in the breast of the paladin

Dried blood upon the bricks
Tread the path of self-destruction
Bring me your heart filled with hate

Look deep into the mirror
So-called hero
Recognize the horns are your own
Bloodlust transformed
Parody of righteousness
Crusader of disgust

I turn my eyes away
From those who’ve forced my hand
Another grim memorial
Bone chips and cracked enamel
Ground into the stones
Each monument a failure to find a middle way

Dried blood upon the bricks
Tread the path of self-destruction
Bring to me a heart filled with hate

Look deep into the mirror
So-called hero
Reflect upon your thirst for martyrdom
Beg my help to ease your burden
Purge your veins of passion’s blood

Death was melody
In bursts of unexpected black
Vivid traumas red sea dark
These brave open doors
Pewter lacerations
Bringing hunger and anxiety

A feeling of alignment
Refusal to possess
A love for fearless expiration
What it means to be
Descendants of the wolf
Descendants of the wolf

To the gray other side
But still the eyes lit
Shallow light shadows the spring
Ease in earth

Among the bitter flowers
In full bloom
Heartstrings black
Heartstrings black
From every corner
Ragged breath whistling
Chopped out its doubts
Only an ember

Shine, feverish solution
Such fracturing to grow
Return to the dust
Tearing apart
Reality that threatens
Embrace the consumed
United in blood
Mourn another song

The subtle growth requires
Far graver lust
Perforated of new dimensions
You will have terror
Melody will be born
Cry out strange learning

Choke all you need
Cultivating to achieve
Darkness seemed deeper
In a small victim

In the blink of
Abominations
The experiment delivers
To lead and inspire
Adversity through failure and
Desire to make
Falling at last

Bruised clouds spilling over
A shrinking sky
Living its limit and shattering
Straining steps couldn’t rest
And the dark house your grave
Furnished in the reflection
Face another face

A feeling of alignment
Refusal to possess
A love for fearless expiration
What it means to be
Descendants of the wolf
Descendants of the wolf

Among the bitter flowers (a feeling of alignment)
In full bloom (refusal to possess )
Heartstrings black
Heartstrings black (a love for fearless expiration)
From every corner (what it means to be )
Ragged breath whistling (descendants of the wolf)
Chopped out its doubts (descendants of the wolf)
Only an ember

(interlude)

Tank treads rumble through the moonless black
A village unaware
Awakened by the sting of a bayonet
Across a bared throat

Sow the fields with quicklime
And shattered bones
They fire at will, they fire at will
Pyres roar in the darkness
To still the cries
They fire at will, they fire at will

Gloved fists and razor wire
Penning the survivors
Like starving cattle
The sick and dying collapse into the filth
Their eyes are hollow

An orderly line
Moths marching single-file to the flame
Cower and obey
And be allowed to crawl another day

Broken hands turned to bleeding spades
Digging trenches across the gun sights
The patient soil awaits unslakable
It thirsts, without judgement

The earth starts to shake
A paralytic fear
The stories were true

Peace and sunlight
A thing of the past
Shallow trenches filled in

We fall to genocide
We fall to genocide

Flesh, blood, and irrationality
It makes no difference
Pull the trigger
I’ll be seeing you soon

Falling into a suffocating void
The smoking pits
The shallow graves
Black with flies
Ash rains upon the earth
The jutting ribs
The sobbing ones
Staring naked at a concrete sky

The question remains
Unanswered, unjustified,
The depths of inhumanity
When victory has a hundred fathers
Genocide’s an orphan
Who gave the order or who just followed
Makes no difference to the slain

Sow the fields with quicklime
And shattered bones
They fire at will, they fire at will
Pyres roar in the darkness
To still the cries
They fire at will, they fire at will

She is fire and smoke
Shifting expressions
I can’t hope to hold
On canvas or in stone

Compelled to hesitate again
Lost momentum
In reflection

Kept prisoner by this undertaking
Bound in chains by memory
That fades like fog in morning sun
Or is it fear that stays my hand?
Cowardice that blinds my eye,
Blunts my tools and drowns my inner fire

This urge, this need, this drive, this obsession
Pressure builds behind my eyes
The blankness stares defiant
Perfection that can’t be matched

Swing the steel to cut and carve
This foolish endeavor, bold with pride
Gouge away the drab façade
Reveal what lies beneath the stone

Compelled to hesitate again
Overcome by dread and doubt
My creation’s gone awry

Gripping the chisel so tight
Bleaching my knuckles to white
With hate I strike
Into the heart of the stone
Treacherous features disowned
I realize
The rage of the fury in me
A smashing incision too deep
Blunt surgery
Cracks through the marble explode
Shatter the cheek and the nose
Crumble to dust

I stumble numbly through the wreckage
Wondering what I’ve done
In my crimson rage

Sharp stones rend my hands to shreds
As I gather the bloody shards

Mortared by my tears and blood
The pieces fall into place
I weep with recognition
As I view my masterpiece at last

Swing the steel to cut and carve
This foolish endeavor, bold with pride
Gouge away the drab façade
Reveal what lies beneath the stone

I bring the hammer down again
And chip away the obvious
I cut, I carve, I search inside
Under the skin lies beauty’s bones

I dance the wind
Aloft my instincts aerial
Seeking ambrosia
Through nettles and thorns
Obstacles impede my quest
My magnum opus

We toil endlessly
Divine industry
We shall sanctify
With vigil and sacrifice

Sacred alchemy
A legacy untold
Transformation so sublime
Paint the world with gold

In writhing cauldrons obscure
Elements converge
Venom, wisdom, and wax
Tears of the sun
Raining up to the sky
Take wing!

I dance the sun
Motion embodying
The light divine
Teach what is known
A wordless vision of the world
To guide the faithful to their goal

Sacred alchemy
A legacy untold
Transformation so sublime
Paint the world with gold

I dance the smoke
Intoxicated blissful dream
Witness to calamity
Our secrets stolen as we slumber on
I’ve lost the sun
The wind it slips right through my glassy wings
My thoughts are ashes on the breeze
Lost and alone, I dance the soil