NDA*

Fate crumbles from these enscribbled walls
When they take possession of your memories, and rescript your soiled soul
When the world is soured into silence by the chainsaw they make of love
When the injustices you fought against start to look justified in the world they shape
When their cold hate makes it feel inhuman to care for their part of humanity
When they place conditions on your very measured breath
As splintering betrayals cross-stitch into a cohesion of hypocrisies
Until you slump, embittered towards hope
And all you most want is to give up the painful future.

*Non-Disclosure Agreement

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Stephen A. Linstead
Picture Edward Hopper

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