brazen bulls and burial
conquered Adam and his ilk
interred in pride , embalmed on silk
keelhauled in the ethereal

passion's pride's a viper pit
syrupy fevered daydreaming
static-eyed and seeing, screaming:
omnideath on advent yet

swallowed down on honeyed eyes
choked back, from wombs untimely ript
hades steeped me on my own pulpit
dissolved, succumb'd, and self grandized.

Pickled souls pick Peter's pipe
as his skin gives way to him
beneath his worn, his best within
to play and spurn and twist his ropes
a circus tent a labyrinth
within his heart chased out
by the bleach of hubris
of the secret, original sin:
when we break something our first instinct is to try hiding it
but here it is found washed up on the river Styx
bobbing next to what must have been a room temperature contortionist