We’ve Done This To Ourselves (Poem)

This is what happens when we tell the truth.

From our mouths fly gobs of flesh and splinters of bone.

We flay ourselves from the inside out

To stand before others without our skin.

The cuts inflicted by words used with intent

Drip with definitional ichor.

Are you a deity in your own regard,

To leak divine fluid that flows with gifts?

Are you a mortal among the rest,

To discharge weak liquid that drains away life?

However you are, you bleed.

We all see this but choose not to know

That our eyes are open yet blindly opaque

That our hands are dripping with shared gore

That our feet are standing on infinite decay.

And even our quietest voices

Scream with a deafening destructive howl.

Time runs on, but our time is running out.