Wrote this a few days ago. Trigger warning Dead Man Walking
What is brotherhood but your blood
Running through another's veins,
Safer there
Than in your pale knuckles,
Clenched around his shoulder at 3am,
A bottle in the other hand
Empty but you carry it anyways;
For his sake.
Desillusionment;
Desperation;
Darkness;
All lakes of different depths and you drown separately each time--
I respect the hell out of you,
Because most people,
Most people only ever make it to this point once,
But you,
Somehow found it in you to try again each time;
A court jester with an execution date,
Magician on his last trick;
Musician playing his encore;
Houdini who stopped wanting to escape,
Pushed the timing farther and farther to the last second;
Crave the feeling of shackles on your skin;
The thrill of knives and stuttering breath;
Escape only to avoid scarring the audience;
For his sake,
Only his sake.
For what is brotherhood
But a bond tethering you to life?
Only those with nothing left to lose stop telling white lies,
And you've left behind your last disguise.
If yours is a face without a mask, then men are justified in wearing one
But not excused.
Dishonesty is more than trust abused.
You want to smile for his sake.
He's the first for whom you started pursuing honesty,
And he's the last you'll still be telling lies--
Don't want him to see how you
Keep swallowing spoonfuls of pain
Just to feel something;
Know only ecstasy
And despair;
Fear the numbness you find there.
And I
Respect the hell out of you,
The way you wear pain like a scepter,
Acknowledge your crown of thorns,
And smile for as long as you have left--
For his sake,
Only his sake.
The last person you are trying to protect is the one who will hurt the hardest
And you know it.
You have become a cornerstone unprompted,
Are bullteproof glass:
Keep cracking but won't allow yourself to shatter,
Are only waiting to be replaced.
You say vanishing like dust is your only hope,
The one blip of light on a dark horizon,
That if there was a chance he would forget
You would take it,
For what is botherhood
But your heartbeat in his chest.
As long as there is noise
You will go on,
And I respect the hell out of you
And what if the only one worth living for
turned out to be
Just another dead man walking?
And if one dies, none will be left
There is no life with nothing to look forward to,
No hope if one of you can't make it.
And what is brotherhood but a lifeline;
The last tether,
Your only hope.
The world is full of zombies walking free
Because the most painful thing is having to bury a body;
the hardest thing is acknowledging life is gone.
Will you allow him to be selfish
Will you let him hold on.
You say you're on the fast track to nothing or to hell
And that only time will tell,
So you keep walking forward for his sake and I,
I respect the hell out of you.