If you look close enough,
you’ll be able to see the phantoms
swimming in my eyes.
Fear not, for I am not governed
by shifting shadows that whisper
impossibles against my skin.
No, I only house them,
and carry them on my cloak for all to see-
so that the world will know
my sin.

I was a child of the night, once-
long ago, I sunk into
the murk’s bitter embrace,
wrapping my arms around her
black heart and lifting it
lightly to my lips.
The shades were my sisters,
and poison was my toast,
and together we’d get drunk on toxic
sips.

I know you see the demons
dancing in my eyes, but they are dying beasts-
for I have closed my lids
and plunged them into putrid darkness.
I ascended my axe and lopped off their limbs,
leaving them to molder and rust.
My hands reek of wrongs,
but my armor is clean, and it gleams
like polished silver as my phantoms fade
to dust.