Keep me in silence I am compliant only at rest Snuffed out flame in my chest My new normal is restraint A scar for every complaint Painted in violence Delicate balance On the precipice of strife Liminal life on the edge Of a knife I have bled Bloody rivers of red From the comfort of my bed If nothing else, I have led Myself into a dread fueled Inertia, out of breath Devoid of virtues That used to be true Black and blue zombie limbs Heavy and languid With a sick sanguine disease Weighed down and lazy From years of splintering Cold winter bones chittering In my shrapnel body Keep me weak and winded With seas of indecision Pooling in my pancreas Thankless rubble rumbling Deep within my cavities Empty space in my tooth That I used to grind up my youth My gums have become numb In the slum of my mouth The sum of my parts Have become gray with decay Save for my purple poisoned heart Always in heat, on the verge Ready to beat a hymn of defeat The song in my soul No longer wonderful I languish in retreat Burned up soles of my feet Alone in scorching sands of time Leaving prints of my identity Hinting at the brevity of my design I used to be somebody Now nobody knows me I used to be the kind of boy That could fill a room with joy Now I'm a minced up mass Failing to stay on task Down to the last I taste nothing but ash My failure has a texture A lot like glass I'm easily broken Consumed by the past Bereft of what comes next I exist in alien skin Begging to be whole again Lacking motivation even To pretend, the sadness deepens Thick as the silence That has and always will be my dark companion.