After long enough
This blank canvas turns to splatter
Fingers broken after walking
Through doors too slowly
Getting caught in the other side
Of rooms

No innocence of violence
But I’m gentleman enough to know
To leave the innocent alone

My skin’s grown tight
Over time, contractures
Keep the world small

But the poison
Stays a well-behaved
Prisoner of war
Inside my shadow

Those parts have left me striped
Went through time without leaving
A wake of violence
But could be worse
I’m just left pied

Thank the heavens a vampire’s teeth
Are only infectious when it kisses
It chokes when it embraces
It screams to its witnesses
If you return the words in kin

It generates debt, then curses
If you dip into its purse
Talks into your future
If you hold the can and string

No innocence of violence
But I’m gentleman enough to know
To leave the innocent alone