I went in search of peace


    in the cast down temples


    of old religions, finding in their


    quiescent


    cobweb-corridor-deaths,


    echoes of


    my own stillness.


    I nodded to the wind’s words


    and the tale told


    of promises forgotten in


    half-light dawns,


    kneeling down to drink


    from blood-troughs


    filled by wars fought in the name


    of ideals.


    I went in search of meaning,


    finding slivers of myself


    between the ash-worms, creeping


    in and out of bony shells,


    the wreck of a world


    forsaken by faith.


    They dragged me out of the ruins,


    holding up a broken idol -


    covered in filth and blood-


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.and told me that I blasphemed,


    and they beat me to the ground.


    I turned from their stones and


    fled to the horizon, seeking a place


    where a rogue might find his place.


    And I saw reflected in mirrors


    and raindrops,


    shards of something I could not know.


    I went in search of truth


    and found it, bleeding words


    of hatred from a wish for love.


    I found truth unsheathed,


    loosed from a scabbard


    of sorrow and regret,


    wishing for death,


    theirs and mine.


    And the steel of their madness


    drove into me


    again and again


    the agony


    of an abandoned world


    gouged out my eyes


    tore off my ears


    and ripped out my tongue


    Until I shattered,


    wandering into the abyss


    blind, deaf and dumb,


    set free from


    the world of hatred,


    to fade into


    a hollow nothing.