I fill my lungs with embers of pain,
scratch you into memories with the might of kings,
interlock my hands in vain.
Days progress as endless fractals,
one after one of immaterial battle:
a trajectory clean as shrapnel.
I saw a world that might provide:
a meaning found, at once highly prised,
a meaning drowned, at once belied.
If I could douse only the times
that truly deserve extinction
——