Kurt Philip Behm

Casting Shame

By darkness I trolled

  in my oft-shedding skin

 

Hidden alleys I roamed

  for new victims at whim

 

But at last I must face

  the deception I’ve wrought

 

And repay every memory

  that festers and rots

 

As my twisted rebellion

  turns its anger within

 

No forgive or forgetting

  or my blaming the gin

 

In the few moments left

  as I slither and weave

 

Still bearing false witness

  against those I’ve deceived

 

My venom gets swallowed

  death final and small

 

With the light I once blocked

  —casting shame on it all

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)