C

Beneath the pallid moon I wake, and think of thee once more- What cursed hand, what fatal flaw, hath sealed and barred the door? Was I too wild, too fierce in soul, too tempest-torn to keep? Too strange for hearts that crave the mask and counterfeit so deep?
I wander through this masquerade where hollow specters grin, Where painted smiles and silver tongues conceal the rot within. Yet I came forth with naked truth, no veil upon my face- And thus became "too much" to love, too fractured for embrace.
Thou bade me speak my sorrows dark, unveil the wounds I bore, Yet when I loosed those buried thoughts, thy warmth withdrew from me. An irony most grim and cold! Thou asked my soul laid bare- Then shrank in horror at the sight that thou had summoned there.
And silent then thou didst become, austere as winter stone, Declaring thou wert not ordained to bear burdens not thine own. I sat as one entranced by mist, bewildered in despair- Was it my heart too vast and deep? My grief too bleak to bear?
Thou named my passions sicknesses, my anguish mad unrest- Since when didst thou become the judge of minds by shadows pressed? What right hath man to deem insane the soul that dares to feel?
To gaze upon another's wounds as though they were unreal?
I sought no cure from mortal lips, nor begged thee make me whole; For long have I walked lone beside the catacombs of soul. With only God to hear my cries through endless nights of dread, While all the world lay deaf and cold among the seeming dead.
Nay-I am not mad. I see too clear the marrow of this earth: The fleshly pageant stripped away reveals but dust and dearth. No rainbow crowns the heavens black, no fireworks grace the sky- Only the grim anatomy of all condemned to die.
This heavy garb of trembling flesh that chains the spirit here Is but the shroud encasing souls that rot from year to year. Yet once-I swore thine eyes met mine beyond this mortal seam; I thought thy spirit recognized the horror of my dream..
But ah! within thy wavering gaze confusion came to rise- And there I met my doom at last, in the twilight of thine eyes.