We weave our madness
In the currents
Of insistent
   tragedy
And roll with
   urgent compromise
As moments
   rise
      in dark catastrophe
We blister in the heat
Of rabid obligation
   cloistered
      in monastic
         conflagrations
Whittling down
   resistance
      persistence
And personal subsistence
And baring raw
The will
   the way
      the fray
Of tattered personality
And rape 
   incensed 
      reality

(c) 1996 James Oliver Smith, Jr