bane

venom seeps through your
sallow skin and soils
the night around you;
you brush against your daydreams
but they recoil and shrivel
at your septic touch.

pools of caustic misery
lie stagnant in your palms,
hugging calloused valleys:
you lust for happiness
but it cringes at your coarse touch
and flees your corrosive grip.

a quicksilver smile
cools on your bloodless lips
and vapor invades your fading grin;
lethal fragility paints your
blanched interior a weak vermilion
and you shrink to toxic dust.

you were born to soar on the
broad wings of triumph,
but ferocious turbulence
has thrust you through the fog
and into the clutches of
what you longed to avoid.