amputate my every limb

replace my mind with one that's not mine own

plunge your prongs into my heart and disconnect every vessel

my humanity lays deeper

the skin that covers me exists simply as an outline

like a cartoon by a child

with thick black crayon

my humanity lays so much deeper

confiscate every organ

every memory

every piece of me

my humanity will remain

for it lays deeper

To dive into the ocean

and teach yourself to swim

knowing you were not made

with gills or scales or fins.

To fly above horizons

farther than eyes can see

with wings molded of metal

an eagle’s kind of free.

To be barren of claws

or teeth worthy of hunting

and yet become a predator

that sends a lion running.

To find a place once hostile

with wind and rain and snow

but create a sanctuary

in which to live and grow.

To see a mountain reaching

forever to the sky

and decide to climb it

if just to be that high.

When they lose their humanity.

Allow their souls to travel to the shadows where the demons whisper in their ears. When they bath themselves in their own greed and drowned in selfish desire at the cost of others in need. When their actions or their tongue coat the earth with crimson and their words spread like a disease distorting and destroying that which is beautiful in this world. For it is hate, greed, selfishness, and ignorance that destroys the soul and leaves us hollow and without a soul we are nothing but monsters.