Jagged is the way.
The serrated edge
of the smooth sailing blade.
Gamble for your fortune.
No lost ways.
No new escapes.
Trouble in the fingers.
Just one touch
cuts deep.
Scars that need sutures.
Looking like a rag doll
pieced together from
scraps of their derision.
Welcome to the New Depression.
This time it isn’t failure based.
Victim of your own success.
Substitute love
for another execution trial,
only to be released
back into the population.
The same one that stifled
and rejected you.
Now it’s another hard,
“Fuck them!” morning.
Dopamine cascades
tingle the fingertips
and ramp up thoughts of revenge.
Suicide of success.
Commit to victory
over the bitch-assed self
of yesterday.
Changing their minds
is a fool’s errand.
Winning their hearts
is a sucker’s move.
Battle the inner demons
and crush the sardonic voices.
Let their ubiquitous
low-intellect narcissisms
be the marker
upon their gravestones.
Meanwhile,
you’re still in the darkness.
Forging and hammering away.
Defeating the Devil
at his only game.
You’ve been through Hell
and know his name.
But hold no intention
to stay.
Victory over self.
The only roll of the dice
that wins on all sides,
even snake eyes.
DJR – 2022
