---

The age demands restraint.

Fire dims behind scripted gestures.

Discomfort fades into routine.

All continues.

Beneath the weight of silence,

I burn

a leash of virtue around my neck.

A serpent coiled along my spine,

Constricts with every swallowed word.

Lead turns to chains,

Iron to thrones

Gold into faith,

Dust to bones.

Every muscle begs to rupture,

but screams still die behind my teeth.

I suffocate in comfort

Stillness creaks like bending steel.

I am the pause the storm avoids,

the breath the world forgot to take.

I am more than man,

less than a god.

I am fury, incarnate,

Mercy no more.

Speaking in noise, mistaking it for praise

Numbing your minds in routine's crawling haze.

You mock the flame, I scorn your world

you flee the wild, I curse your kind

you fear the deep, I feed on your fear

and so you are many, but nothing and I hate you all

Your peace is my poison. Your silence – my war.