.

Solitarily, I enumerate
the veins of light
in my shadowed heart
   to ease its suffering.

Written beneath each glimmer
is a chronology of savagery
etched into stony tissue.

Sincerely, I supplicate
the malignant whispers
of my plundered soul
     to cease its rebelling.

Hidden in each thought
is a history of hypocrisy
hewn into every sinew.