The Hangman

Without fear

Primordial oozing

Sipped through straws

Clammy fingers

On bony claws

The hangman says

It’s reckoning day

Calls boys and girls

To come and play

Through love and language

The desolation of

Our innards

Loneliness incarnate

Daddy’s spitting image

Lost down the bottle

Sucking back

Poison

Wishing it would

Kill his sin

Withering, withering

Drinking the ink

From my pen

Stretching my veins

Again and again

Who I once was

Who I could

Have been

All is lost

In the kingdom of men