we all gather around the table wearing masks of decadence
that cannot hide our dilated pupils, black holes hollow
there’s trying to be good and there’s trying to win the favour
of an indifferent god (which is another word for cruel)

what is salvation and what is the fastest way to get there, we cry
can you not hear the gnashing teeth of what we’re trying to outrun?
we’re all starving beasts at the gates of hell, bodies squirming

so we crawl over the table, crushing overripe fruits
with our bruised knees and wrenching a bottle of wine
from someone’s old, trembling hands / pouring the crimson red
down our throats until it spills out of our empty rib cages

we eat and eat and drown out the moaning of this carnal soiree
with a choir that promises us angels / we leave bloody handprints
on the tablecloth and tell ourselves it’s still white

when the tender meat turns rotten we don’t stop, just devour faster
– using hands and teeth but never swallowing without tasting it all
we wear pomegranate seeds around our necks for the fair price
of eternal regret / just one small bite for a few seconds of heaven

when are you damned and when are you alive and
aren’t the two the same thing?

how much beauty can you suck out of life before it comes ugly?