I have ripped apart my body To show the world In spite, in degradation In calling out your name These faces, bleak and tender Shedding tears and fragile The scent of failure Seeps from my skin And when I reach the end My pockets filled with dust I will speak, untethered “These words won’t be worth Their weight in gold” Corrupt in solitude This monolith in darkness I am enslaved to This statue buried at sea We ache for pleasures Over discipline, over virtue Over purity, over decency