Verse: Constant

Idle idolatry
did never satisfy
such casual gods
as we

we sought hunger
rewarded fear
courted danger
with our teeth
bared

not even
in our image
could we have
imagined the
dark transgressions
that transpired
between us

our confessions
were conferred
not implied
or pliant
but they
were a constant

momentarily
immortal, but
we grew dull with
faultless fatigue
we inched
toward increasingly
milder intrusions
wearing music
like a mask

until they
intruded
extracted you
just as a surgeon
would excise a tumor
they denied me
any comfort
and would not
help me free
this song

I was not pure
when I began this
but now
I am innocent
and I am on fire