Stark and hardened
is the visage of a man
who stands stoic and scarred
with hands marred from the toil
of his existence
•••••
Once embodied more than this worn leather-skinned exterior
dried hide cracked and calloused
with wounds salt-packed callously
•••••
no one peered below the skin
•••••
Now a set of primitive passions
that supercede innate compassion
his heart merely the pulsating
bulging his forearm veins
as pick meets barren ground
digging a ditch to lie down in
•••••
his grave
•••••
The production of which unearths vitality
whilst burrying decades of lived reality
no soul mourning at the funeral pyre
most alive at his most self-inflicting
he lives in dying
•••••
in killing himself
•••••
Slowly
Softly
Silently
save for battlecries and braggadocio
or perhaps violently
in a blaze
calmed by the cold steel barrel
•••••
Existence non-intrinsic
to be determined by alpha council
a façade of warpaint smudged haphazardly
on a frightened boy
whose slights of step land him in pits of feral wolves
they shred him to loose their fetters of fear
•••••
and paranoia
•••••
A mirror of insecurity hangs within
a piercing glare scares him
and shatters into jagged shards
that dare him to slice his throat
as he slithers a noosed tightrope
•••••
Striding in tightly laced boots
numb to the constrict
ever weary
this conscript
jumping from the war machine
into the construct
•••••
given a harness
•••••
Of rachet straps wrapped tightly around the chest
and fastened to flesh
which snap back fast
and devour slack
their geared teeth click, clack
until ribs crack
muting the gasps exasperating
as his lungs collapse
•••••
Panic attacks
relapse
substance abuse substitutes for a life once substantial
now turned to refuse
•••••
symptoms of affliction
Masculinity