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The Effigy

Sunrise brings thawing end

To this story that once was mine

Relent to time’s growing weight

I pass it for her to carry on

Take up my dying thread

Embroider the shroud, obscure departing light

Consume

Consume me with your flame

Sacrifice

Fiery altar

Bear this sacrifice of mine

All need witness

Silent abyss I do enlist

Binding strands of his dying name

Eyes marked with ash

Prepared death mask for the worn man

Transgression buds renewal’s gift as we prayed

Connecting our fates,

Our pain

Carved out from the bone

His brow, upon it I lay my hands

To birth of his parting breaths

A blemished ram guided to the blade

No angels to stay my strike

Blackened marigolds of night

Anointed by blood of our sacred pact

One nurtured out of burning

Our bleak, twisting past

Flowering altar

Bear this offering of mine

A comforting veil pierced by the fall of a knife

As sharpening knells demark inversion of life

Blossoms moonlit

Pure anguish sings as the blooms shift

Stinging honor to the hollowed slain

This coping phantom

Ritual-born son eats the sins of

Those who’d prefer I was passing in his place

Connecting our fates,

Our pain

Carved out from the bone

His brow, upon it I lay my hands

To birth of his parting breaths

A blemished ram guided to the blade

No angels did stay my strike

He’s spoken his final words

Eyes staring within me in embrace

Red liquid seeps from his chest

It drains me away

A seedling soul spreads its leaves to the wind

The balancing toll paid for life to begin

His brow, upon it I lay my hands

To birth of his parting breaths

A blemished ram guided to the blade

No angels did stay my strike

Blackened marigolds of night

Anointed by blood of our sacred pact

One nurtured out of burning

Our bleak, twisting past

Only ashes remain