I. CONVICTION
Littered street corners
blend with the falling snow
like ash against skin
Their chants ring in my ears
as the cold air clings
and my skin burns.

II. REALIZATION
Reflection in shattered glass
The distortion shatters
illusion
I have joined them.
These scars shine like
trophies
My voice longs to
join theirs

III. ECSTASY
Arms linked
Instruments of mass elevation
in our hands
voices melting
molding
breaths merging
fire, fire,
burning so
bright.

IV. EVASION
Their shouts crash
against my ears like
rough tides on
weathered shores
Lies slither from their
tongues
trying to cast a spell
on my now open heart
binding
They do not understand
cutting away at my outside
when my inside
had just healed
reformed
Envy must be consuming them
their wings clipped and
bare while mine
sing for the heavens and
can take me there
I run to protect my peace
a refugee in a war
they named, not we.

V. DAMNATION
The sky has never felt
so suffocating
the ground beneath me
so cold
I writhe in agony as
my body screams for
its elixir
robbed of its
serenity it is
sent to rot
in the hell of man's hand
pulled out of paradise
where my brethren
echoed in my soul
and light
flooded
darkness
I have been sentenced
to forever longing
deemed a criminal
lost to the creed
of desire.