I watched you crawl
into dark spaces,
lithe and contorted,
like some many-legged insect.
Absolving yourself
of all your little disgraces,
those little white lies
that became an infinite void.
I saw you feed
on pain and devastation.
I saw what a diet
of shame
and guilt
could do.
You,
who I once believed
were a candidate for butterfly,
discarded your cocoon
and took up the venom.
How must it feel,
now that you fear the light
and the boot heel?
The predators,
they know your name, now
and they keep their ears to the ground
to hear the click and clatter
of your sharp little feet
deep beneath.
They will wait for you
to come back to the surface,
to devour you
in a flurry
of beak and blood
and screaming.
Oh, the screaming…
Those dark creatures
that lay deep inside your psyche.
Little white lies,
that feed upon your pain.
I thought that you were more
than the vermin
and the bottom feeders,
how could I not see
you were becoming a centipede?
HG – 2018
