Take your beauty away,

for I cannot bear the thought of enslavement

in your hands let alone the loving

smile you show me, a mortal man.

 

A man of weakness, of flaws and frailties

all bound up in the heart of a selfish tyrant

who wishes that she was free to sample

a world in which the Gods despise

and in which this slave is bound by misfortune

and terror.

 

Stupid, forever cursing the insanity

of choice, the meanest thimble protecting

the pricking of the set out time

and the way forward never wavering,

undiluted and worn, stupid choices to which

this frailty of right and wrong

is but a curse,

I curse it as I curse the beauty that

enslaves me.

 

The chains of youth, of first desire,

stupid and reckless choice,

I seem to be nothing

more than one huge mistake

that Time now cannot

bear to erase;

for what is the point of erasing

an error of slavery,

the blunder in genetics,

when Time

has the last laugh.

 

Beauty, remove yourself from my vision,

for I cannot live in your shadow

as a slave anymore.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015