Into the whirring gears of the night

To be cut along the seams

Filleted and scattered

As a red mass of fear

–

Under swaying searchlights

I am the sum of my scars

My nicked aspirations

Drumming to their silence    

 –

Strangers circle above

For a morsel of the shame  

To be savored among friends

When the night’s feast is bare  

–

Cleaved to pieces

And hauled to their nests

Shared again on dull days

Where their pain resounds