Once burned, twice shy And so, I consciously drink my coffee With a little cream and sugar After allowing it to cool I revisit haunted houses In the light of day Sharing laughter with friends At the ghosts and goblins And test strangers By talking about monsters And seeing their reactions Every secret is a hidden body Are they the killer? Or family of the deceased?

The dark night of dissolution has come But we’ve already lived through it many times All the world is a frenzy But this is just our routine by now We no longer fear the chaos Of confusion and blame and vindication We would almost laugh Were it not so destructive and world-ending At this point, it just seems foolish To indulge into the drama As if it were somehow special And not just another apocalypse On another day of the week One of perhaps two or three planned for today

The sign to the world that I am worthy of respect A face to wear when my personality fails me Years of life and tens of thousands of dollars in 1/1 millionth of a tree The promise of employment, realized to be nothing more than an invitation to continue visiting my public library

Flashes of a Great Light ripple through evening darkness Thunder permeates the air I hear my breath and the curious scratches of my pencil on a page The soft embrace of a pillow nurtures my head like the Primordial Mother Jasmine scented incense casts a faint aroma seemingly from another world The aftertaste of ambrosia lingers on my tongue, reminding me that God has blessed my life

It makes me sad Seeing women With no respect for themselves Giving away their chastity As if they were nothing. The modern values Are confused and sadistic Attacking us at our roots Like Freud. Perversion is not a neutral choice Go to India and ask Any villager to undress. They’ll hit you hard They’ll shout and chase you Out of their country. Their culture has learned Places where women are respected and respectable Are holy. Fight it out of your own eye Fill your mind with the purity of love Become the Spirit And desire for that Union with God. Then you’ll see The entrepreneurs have befooled you Into giving away your power Playing on your weaknesses Tempting you before your brain fully formed. This is not normal This is a sickness Poisoning the soil Around the Tree of Life. You are worth more than your appearance You are not a prostitute You don’t need to attract anyone That is not your value. The past is gone No matter what you’ve done Your innocence will come back If you stop destroying it And compromising with impurity.