by LJ Frank
infectious
an emotional pathogen that seeps
through the veins and arteries of the head
yet brightens the human soul
with the appearance of caring
and courage
the quiet within knows
the metamorphosis is open to question
still, one must make a notation
on the yellow pad of the brain
the amanita muscaria may seduce
with a color that greets the day
yet a footnote reads – not to taste
for the alleys of the cerebellum
are lined with tiny crevices
filled with tentacles of magic
and this toadstool is not the one
that truly harms though toxic,
rather it’s the loveless charm of a paramour
like a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia
caught up in his own reflection
and therein lies the microbe of deception
Narcissus’s gaze is a false Messiah
a beingness that fails to see
the blind outrage of cruelty
a self-aggrandized vision
and its consequential actions
for what, except in the name of a self-reflection,
but the hearer’s minds are numb
from the complexities of fear and doubt
should another Messiah arrive
that becomes a contagion with charismatic words
while the cross-bearers of hardship cry out
but wait…what is truth,
the hanging tree lay within the heart
brutality without boundaries
clothed in the latest fashion
but self-disclosure is a perilous journey
for who profits from their Messiah
if their personal accounts are not profitable,
until one realizes that no tithing is necessary
to be inoculated and saved
for the mustard seed is found after all
in the androgynous earth of compassion
and the attribute of the ancients’ blood
is to discern the virtue of
redemption.