UNDER OATH

Stead-fire, Stead-fire, 

Sturdy of home; 

This itch got me inching 

The whites of my bones.

Headlines, Headlines, 

Ready to blow 

This cryptic encryption

Is Hijacking Rome.

Hemorrhaging fetuses 

Red to the toe;

In wedlock our grievance 

Refuses to show.

Bled out with reasons

We ought not to know;

Dispel nothing, weeping 

Regret from a stone. 

We fight all night, 

Better alone. 

Wistfully blissful, 

Adjacently so.

No time, no time, 

Surfeit of woes; 

Fitfully chiseling:

Breaking what’s grown.

Venerate treason

With no moral code;

Elected with scheming

Genetically stowed. 

Bred with the ease to

Embellish and gloat, 

Met with deceit

Who would melt under oath. 

Alright, Hang tight, 

We gotta go.

You’ve broken our spirit, 

Got nothing to show. 

Front lines tongue-tied, 

Hung up, and chocked, 

You’ve stolen the meaning 

Of wonder, and hope.

written & photographed by cass