The Black Keeps Bleeding

The Black Keeps Bleeding

The black keeps bleeding 

Seeping and creeping

Into the hope I harbor

The white grows grey 

Obscurity’s martyr

Till all that is left

As the light gives way

Is dark and darker.

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I'm afraid the wine won't wash away

The blood that brands my hands

Mourn the loss of more innocent days

When I thought I knew who I am

Call a thing by better names 

It is no better or worse

To see the dark side of light

Is a rare and painful curse

To scar a man's mere mortal flesh

Is a sin simple enough

But far fouler it is a transgress

To kill another’s love

Quod me nutrit me destruit

David’s disease also haunts me

Living to die, dying to live

Resigned to conclude, “c’est la vie”

Pick your poison, Socrates

How the rope doth fray

Defy your death, Dionysus

Game Pascal dare not play

Ravenous hunger for everything

O, Heart so far from pure

Give Kierkegaard my apologies

Thank Camus for the cure.

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Even as I cling so desperately to life

And pretend that I be free

I glimpse on the fringe of Sanity's sight

Death blows kisses to me.

- Quin McGlaughlin