OUR NAMES GIVE US SOULS

Our power gives us pleasure, and days fall on like dominoes,
A devil’s cup to numb us in our stasis, dry the skin and sink the eyes,
Sweet clouds that swell our passion, calm our thoughts and waste the hours,
Fallen mirrors, so our aging can’t reflect upon the present state of youth.
Fantasy, our time is free and endless, each word a breath behind the next,
A catastrophic shift away from all our fear embodies;
Cracking bones and graying hair, our final hours closer than our first,
This juvenile glimmer in the eye, a spark of necessary ignorance.
The logic of distraction, we are witnesses and players to heavy providence,
A door to faults and indiscretions always open, with seductive gold;
Our naked bodies smooth and glistening, the mind plays tricks with candlelight,
Impure perfection haunts the mind, at war with that which lures us from our goals.
This frequent visitor, our guilt, what one man has another must as well;
We are the names our mothers chose - a boy will do no wrong, a girl the paragon of modesty;
To seize the life we’re given, the grasp of corpses and a will of fire,
Our names beget our liberty, the passage onward rife with siren songs and truth.