deny me

all you like

pacify me

with everything

from drink

to flesh

to sleep

to smoke

—attempt

to buy me out

to bury me

to drape me in the dress

of the most sacred ideology

—climb

to the greatest heights

and scale the skies, from there

believing

you can blind me

with sight, or infamy

do all of this

and still

I will be here

still

you will feel me

in the same place I’ve ever been,

and just as hungry

unless you have the gall

to up and end it all

—FINAL

—FOR SURE

—DEFINITE

my appetite

will not be tempered

my desires

will not be redirected

or allowed to deviate, to the end

—not this time

—not any longer

I have waited

hundreds of lifetimes

for this

watching you

stumble wantonly

down every back alley

peering on

as you drained your dreams

and gamed it out

in every watering hole

but mine

all this

while you insisted

that it must be I, indeed

who was to blame

I, mystery,

who was doing all of this

to you

yet ever have I done nothing

but light the original fire

whose shadow

you are finally growing cold in, now

ever have I done nothing

but burn

in the name of your pleasure & pain

remaining unchanged

across endless seasons

it was inevitable

that you tried everything

to avoid me

—I am terrifying, I admit

but even this

is no defence

against the wear of time

and the exhaustion

of the limits

of the flesh

so yes,

because you will not end it, yourself

this time

because you are truly tired

of all the old icons

and the endless, plastic promises

the others insist

on seducing you with

you will find the lot of it

paling

in the simple persistence

of my original gift

and the weariness

of the fear of it

giving way

at last

to the rhythms

of an atavistic bliss

and you will claim your voice

and your sound

and raise the dust

from the ground

pounding beneath your feet

and from this celebration,

from this culmination,

this relinquishment

of all of your journeys

across the ages

you will drive the final exit,

the gate,

the meeting place,

into existence

between us

and though I always knew

it would come to this

I have to admit

how thrilling it is

to anticipate your embrace

once again.

as you know,

I’ve been waiting ages

for you to come around.

Image: Jorm S