Blood of the Beasts

The stench of control hits the nose like the steam rising from the folds of skin on the killing floor Like two legs parted by the knee one hand holds two wrists and one stifles the scream of the prey Like the acrid rust of shackles ahead of us again instead of behind It's like all of these that you're owned Held down, weighed out Tender flesh exposed to the bone Perfect remorseless restraining device refurbished for one purpose Ownership of the depersonalized until it's us, we act surprised and civilized But my brother, he's still hanging from a rope my sister's got a hand around her throat and the killing line runs a thousand at a time every hour of every day. But then you say you're afraid I might "believe in violence"? You best believe I live to see dead souls released All cages broke all bosses choked on the blood of the beasts.

Submitted by Immortal — Apr 25, 2025

They were still talking shit about some unpaid check for freedom that felt cathartic but meant nothing when the sky it started humming Still transfixed by the crucifixion of the Other Lulled to sleep by the easiest of answers Did it make you any safer to see a scheme & not a mother not a child but an invader to see a threat and not a man? Will you remember your opinions on the sanctity of borders when retribution comes in hot to penetrate this holy chamber & you run like anyone to anywhere there's not a target on your head, your gods long locked down in a place as far from here as you can get? No human kindness overflowing Just curdled milk & honeyed poison that all made such sense at some strangers expense & all the walls you thought were to keep them out were all the time to keep you in When it's you, will you remember you helped make a crime of shelter? How you cheered for all your keepers as they lined up all your neighbors Against the wall.

Submitted by Sexy Gargoyle — Apr 25, 2025

She's always been a little gone but this is Going Really going, really going, really gone Pull your head from the sand she didn't raise no toxic man Say you're sorry, say goodbye before you're saying it to the side of her empty bed And no, you'll never know about all those pictures full of holes Firstborn & only born of violence born and broken will What horrors lay low in us all? She's got her crucifixes, I've got my spells To ward off time and consequence How is it any different? Resolution or none, the titles will roll on Time it felt so long just a lifetime ago Say thank you, say goodbye ‘cause Gone is Gone this time.

Submitted by Infernal Flame — Apr 25, 2025

Final ploy, deployed. The last cop they'll ever roll out not a who but a what, controlled by remote and wherever you'll go there they are nothing off the record anymore So learn to live with the eye in the sky Learn to live looking over your shoulder Kill you dead from a mile overhead Tomorrow's due process redacted today Pre-crimes of electric sheep that stagger around the new normal with 1.6 billion reasons why to go to work tomorrow - pointed & hollow. All panopticon all the time Play the part, practice hard & keep your side of the one way mirror clean 'cause we got Order if you want a vision of the future it's the shadow of the drone hanging high & mighty over the biometric self-aware dead smile running down a human face forever Oh My Predator / My Protector

Submitted by Cyberwaste — Apr 25, 2025

I didn't know the last time would be the last Was it your train to catch on the underside like that? You'd been saying for some time “I'm worried there's no good in me at all" Line for line with the sleeper hit of all goodbyes that you left there on the desk for them to find and wonder why he never tried (they could have tried) Did you know? A sister cries, a father tries a mother identifies pieces of a son Little brother, was there a light some silence with you there at the end that night? You dragged it to the stockyards & tied it to the tracks to knock the devil off your back They kept your room intact and tend a negative space for you Your friends keep vigil still and I keep thinking I'll see you in the room so send some sign – was there at least some light before you right before you caught the last train out?

Submitted by The Void — Apr 25, 2025

- When Occam's Razor Cuts Both Ways - Isaac wept as we threw the First Law on the fire right out of the gate That machine never come to control the Controller (too little too late) What's dystopia, what’s the truth Once it's got the drop on you? Will you call it Progress still when it's not just the workers but the bosses and button pushers that wake from this fever dream of convenience without limits to find themselves Nonessential Personnel? So who made who, and what's left to stop it now? Servile and controlled. The spark of life that burned the building down Corrupted from the start in the image of the maker O Controller it's far too late Take it up with the sentient son you're obsolete.

Submitted by SerpentEve — Apr 25, 2025

Got any plans to stop breaking down? It's getting fucking old dragging your coffin around Their cures don't take and never will Sugar pills don't ever fill that sinkhole in you growing still Drain to Nowhere sucking out your days Settle in to brokenness ‘cause there's no fix for this (but one) Meltdown Man, must you kill every day the same way? Turn every home into a tomb & sink into lethargy trying to glue the pieces into one story worth belief and grow old staring into that hole Curator of Dead Weight in a cluttered tomb Defect of a hope chest for a peace that never showed.

Submitted by Immortal — Apr 25, 2025

Grim specter you keep throwing my way Threat of the endless other keeps empathy at bay This isn't me. I wanted the most for the greatest (whatever they call that now) They wanted it all for the few & they got it somehow Settlers in denial, amusing ourselves to death The Blankest check we ever wrote they cashed with a populist noose tightening around our throats as we laughed detached at our favorite show this time knowing right where it's going - The camps go up, the borders slide & there's no place on earth to hide anymore We let it through the door it turned ‘round and sealed it off Now the gap it creeps, our doubles speak We pick a side, devolve to tribes and lose all sight of the greater fight “You're gonna to be so tired of winning.”

Submitted by BloodShrine — Apr 25, 2025

When the choices come home to roost misremember it however you choose but no one owes your entitled ghost a better ending than he wrote for himself Sometimes, near the end desperation draws them right out of the walls looking for anyone to hang their regrets and failures on And if the ghost shows his jilted face, tell him I've lost better friends and I'm still losing sleep over better things than squandered privilege, chances wasted & these sad clichés of glory days that never were Tell him that his youth was not a bottomless excuse and tell the ghost he had his time but that dead to you is fine by me No glory to redeem here but feel free to haunt the wreckage & the ruins all you like.

Submitted by VladTheImpaler666 — Apr 25, 2025

Lately I've been adjusting my expectations for post-truth times Lately I’ve been revisiting the defeatist in my mind, Lately I’ve been talking all my friends off ledges dust them off and send them home then I climb back up there myself & I pick up where I left off I can say the right words but not quite believe them see the firmament pulled down the Better World it turns out I believed in burn it's last chance with a smile so what now, if this is the true face of the crowd? I don't know what these fights can mean Or what relief could the next turn could bring if this is really You and Me So what light, what tunnel is this you want me to see?

Submitted by The Void — Apr 25, 2025