Slack

Trap him with whispers
And beat him with taunts.
Ridicule that which
He flounces and flaunts.
Rattle his bones,
And watch him twitch,
Make him hear voices,
Those that bewitch

Both the meek naïve
And the steadfast wary.
Invoke those dreams
That recur, never vary
And instead pray upon him,
His outlandish ideals.
Test what he thinks,
Second-guess what he feels.

What's your reality?
What do you see?
From all of his doubt
He will never be free.
Hear our winds call
And speak to his fears
Until his resolve is broken
By a faint stream of tears.

Burn him inside out,
Words drenched in acid.
Now he is ravaged, far from
His past, tame and placid.
He's changing before us
Into something never seen.
Nothing to recognise, gone,
From the wreckage we cannot glean

A single memory. Down and out.
His body is slack.
But amongst this ruin
His voice still speaks back.
His voice fights back.