Admitting Falsehood (Origins)
World dies as he grows –
And no tears under the Marble Mask,
A stoic demon, this Oriax,
Who floods the righteous with emotion;
Some even consider him a god,
Deriding and sanctimonious;
Only the blind could see it this way,
Pursuing its shadow through the cracks . . .
The man shudders:
Flash of a room, bed and chair,
Behind the eyes, in a torture chamber;
Veiled proximity, all at once revealed.
Begetting suicide, burning it to the ground,
Embers going out in the dead mask’s gaze –
A new light emits in its place,
Triumphal stare of silver and gold,
Observing the man’s brutal transformation . . .
The man knows a demon when he sees it,
Dripping pride wherever it goes –
No gateway to its mind, no word for its heart,
Yet here stands its visage, remote but urgent;
Chaotic, yet seemingly unchanged,
Until the Marble Mask falls,
And the silent question is answered.