Perspiring in buckets
I choke on my raging pulse
To ridicule’s grueling
Untiring refrain

For my every bruise
My faulty, disfigured bends
I pay in streams
Shed, to each swift lash of words

Tongue-tied and indisposed
The anthem climbs
Like a wafting
Imperial rag

But it is not cowardice
Which spawns
The tremors I keep

It is the mind’s
Timeless and vicious coup
When all order is lost
Dislodged, from its gilded throne