We have seen bodies in pain
And bodies at ease,
And the sunset of human eyes
Seducing us both into the background.
 
The physics of a joke:
In this we rejoice,
Having little else.
 
Laughter prologues the unmentionable,
Like soothing memories before the end.
We must hide ourselves deep;
We must carry the laughter in our hands
And on our lips and pretend that we cry instead,
For the innocent man’s disguise is his face.
 
The disease spread across paper;
The ink blushed
And blotted out what contrition
Remained.
There was very little,
And it says you have not loved
Until you have been torn from hate.
 
You carved a monad out of decay;
You have resuscitated the act of deconstruction
In which the universe is alone
And saw the malice of creation
And lived as quietly as
The silence just before the sound was heard.
 

This revenge was blessed
With the pride of hell
And the journey there
And the slow walk back.
It is all like nothing else.

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