abundance or a quiet decay

masked by beauty?

and the hands of acceptance,

turns into a sleight of hand.

got ya? not, said the priest nodding

to the wise man who carried on walking

but it was a sham.

a trojan horse develops wings and is no longer

contained, hark hark the senses try to find

pain, suffering, must be the devil the brain says:

the brain lies when pleasure dulls, senses get beguiled,

it is all worth it the limbic system is in euphoria

with maidens dancing enchantingly.

oh behave now, the touch sergeant yells,

the stern teacher whips the boy as he sobs with tears

enough to fill a bucket, but her heart is larger than

a container not meant for sorrow.

delights fills her up, it cannot be wrong

and trojans morph to looks just like a teacher.

not again, the exasperated man lamented

when the halt was done once again, just before the finish line,

halt halt! yelled the director,

whose script had now come up and the scene just could

not go on to the next, start in an infinite loop

of trying to get past a gray zone, hands clammy, sweat pouring down

with sleeves soaked in a nightmarish awakening,

let’s just leap and not look, the onlookers screamed

for a change.

and he did, out of desperation – too fidgeting

then crossed the line

to find the unknown where a scene got played

out but only in dreams.

vacant, blank, it was the gravestones unimpressed with all

the staging, all the posturing, all the small talks:

they gave a thumbs down,

it was not like that at all, the man tried to explain

to the epitaph, unresponsive.

as epitaph tend to be, made by the same posturing,

masquerading nightshades easily mistaken by the senses.

the heart knows otherwise,

blocked it out.

it is just survival, pleasure, carrots, more, rebrand, scramble

the words, change the plot.

the heart still sees, stares blankly

like gravestones unimpressed.

the trojan did break through, crossed that finish line,

because an infinite loop was dubious, too much at stake

it was. bled dry.

the heart was left outside the dream,

the dream of utopia, since the trojan had already

stated her case. it was convincing. she was a convincing liar.