Inhibition never was a word, on the lines
Recounting my life as I helloed the spirits
Crossing my path regardless of who they were.

To me they were all human friends and I
Loved them just as I loved myself.

Judged, for my behaviour naïf I was warned
Not to trust the unknown, that it might
Chase me down to harm me, and it did.

Yet I refused, to change and persevered,
Swallowed grapes inhaling fumes.

I danced, to melodies of intimacy with strangers,
Met them personally enthralled by their nature
Seduced, by their resemblance to me.

I fell in love, engendering bodies to receive
New spirits taking shape afore my eyes.

I fell in love with many more, unable
To surrender to chains and freed by truth
I discovered souls, treasure hunting I awed.

Until not me but something changed
Intimacy turned into a game, of evasion.

The spirits I meet no longer reveal themselves
Eluding reality as it was poisonous they wear masks,
Build fences even nakedness cannot trespass.

I retreat, though their loneliness is palpable and infects
Me bereft of the substance on which I lustily fed.

Seeking spirits unwilling to undress I awake
In a bed, deserted by human essence as if I were
The only human left in the world.

[Featured art: by Adam Martinakis]