The Invisible Man

There’s a hole in the ground where I used to be,

It clutches and grabs, and it won’t set me free.

Its edges are sharp with the stones that I cast;

Its bottom’s as deep as the mercy I lacked.

The soil beside it is heaped deep and red,

In equal proportion to tears no one shed.

Its mouth is as wide as my hunger for sin;

The air it exudes leaves a damp on the skin.

A throat it conceals, which falls deeper than light,

And jerks at my bones, ’til they’re jerked out of sight.

The fingers I’m missing don’t slow my descent;

A fitting reward for the life I once led.

Too late, now, a voice I don’t have pleads for grace,

As rocks like the rock of my heart take my place.

A lake set to burn with the fuel of my greed

Awaits to exact a fair price for my deeds.

A host of the fallen come crowing my name

As roughly they cuff me in shackles of shame.

A voice like the thunder of nightmares now peals

In lusting reminder of bargains long sealed.

I’m given a last wistful look at my life

To see for myself where my innocence died.

Then down slams the lid on my coffin of guilt

And nails seal me in with the doom that I’ve built.

One day I was King with a crown made of gold

Yet fiends now command me as one that they own.

No longer the master; a slave now I am.

Here lies the forgotten, invisible man.