Hour Eight<\/p>\n
The devil nestles underneath
\ncar door handles
\nflooding lungs
\nand invading the bloodstream of society.
\nThe drivers fein placation
\nwith promises of Pleasure Island.
\nNostrils extend
\nin deeply croaking breaths
\nheavy-handed and grappling
\nprotests are caught in the throat
\nas a scurry of cement voices
\nrumble threats of thunder.
\nPounding fists,
\na gravel in the auction block.
\nThe drivers offer no extended warranty
\non each life absconded
\na commodity of wonton lust
\nand exacerbated agony.
\nLightning erupts in heads
\nwith yet another fell swoop
\nbound by blackmail-
\nlife, a refrain in melody
\nnow a scourge of screams
\nripping the insides of lungs out.
\nPoison fills the gaps
\neroding self-worth
\nas another penny made
\nis yet another body that drops.
\nVeins a caustic bed of
\nvenom worms squirming up forearms-
\na belt to stave off flow
\nand retaliation in it’s conditioning.
\nThey’re juxtaposed against an array of forms
\nclasses and creeds stacked up on beds
\npressing and expressing
\nthe life from the fruit
\nof the victims.
\nHaunted eyes house crippling spirits
\nbroken by the thrusts
\nof doggerel drivers-
\npulling themselves forward.
\nRiches gather in the dragon’s lair
\nas it is chased into yet
\nanother compound
\nwith no means to identify
\nthe treasure in each soul-
\nlife, a fraction of what it used to be.
\nDreams a congealed slur of
\nvoices warning
\ncoagulating through arteries
\nto stave the flow of life and emotion-
\nflogged for the biteback.
\nInnocence, a calamity
\nwith silent prayers echoing
\ndown hallways
\nmanifesting rescue.
\nThe drivers lick the
\nmoney from their fingers
\nlike pork grease
\nand stalk about…
\n…watching…
\n…always watching
\never present,
\nuntil the siren’s call
\nbeaconing justice
\nand honest resolve.
\nThe drivers blanch
\nat the Sound of Freedom,
\nand hide behind their screens
\npraying their own prayers
\nthat anonymity will save them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hour Eight The devil nestles underneath car door handles flooding lungs and invading the bloodstream of society. The drivers fein placation with promises of Pleasure Island. Nostrils extend in deeply croaking breaths heavy-handed and grappling protests are caught in the throat as a scurry of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5772,5765,680,193,3019,326,15,228,391,10,355,390,1084],"class_list":["post-133044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","tag-2023fullmarathon","tag-2023poetrymarathon","tag-poetrymarathon","tag-193","tag-24-hour-poetry-marathon","tag-marathon","tag-poem","tag-poems","tag-poet","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-marathon","tag-writer","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133044"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134588,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133044\/revisions\/134588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}