Betrayal

Betrayal

If asked to betray one you hold most dear
What recompense would you expect to hear?
Would it be done for the sake of one's wealth,
Or fear of torture, or fear for one's health?
Would you prefer secretly to backstab;
Or rather, openly, consciously, blab?
What is the price of the friendships you make:
From what bribe will you these friendships forsake?

To be the target of some deceptions
Leaves one holding unpleasant emotions.
Be careful in whom one places one`s trust --
Or cowardly avoid all of the lust
That gives rise to your worldly attachments,
`Til betrayal is a minor nuisance.

Behind the Walls

Behind the Walls

Mad memories of stone and metal
And plastic forks to eat off of sterile plates
Eyes always watching a human menagerie
As we learn how to be what we once were.
Nobody leaves without the faint scars
Of being labelled, diagnosed, poisoned, and caged.
I sleep in a room like a spider's web
Fearful every night; my atheism dissolves
To make way for the peaceful repose of religion.
I am Zarathustra's disciple, casting spells
And witchcraft.  I am balanced by Tao
But not enough for the vampires who
Take from me my blood at regular intervals.
I glare at puzzles, TV, exercise machines.
I test the walls and columns and flora
And discover that only half are as they appear.
One pillar is stone; another rings like a bell.
One plant is leafy and alive -- the other plastic.
I develop a fixation on cheese.  I am a rat,
My conscience giving hints about my feelings.
I experience metaphor in lively rants and
Colourful behavioural alterations.
Always the question: "are you having suicidal thoughts?"
To which I reply: I wouldn't be here if I did.
My paranoia had lead me to flee the freedom outside.
This was life-saving: a witness protection program.