Eviscerated struts of phantom pride
and failing courage mark this final strife.
In loneliness and terror I abide
the suck of cancer that deflates my life
and closes even shadows from my mind
which shrinks to contemplate a total black
eternity; my vision cannot find
a silvered mirror shining comfort back.
My life has made an insufficient trade
for too much partial joy and cunning lust
that tempted self-deception to evade
the certainty that whims reduce to dust.
In solitary pain in shrinking rooms
I live now just to hate this death that looms.
March 2008