In the Furnace of My Affliction

by Thomas Fullmer

From the precipice of sanity

To the edge of reason and beyond
That dark abyss of insanity
That draws you in like a black hole
Obscuring the light and eclipsing the truth
with a murderous nightmare
that like a cold hard edge
cleaves the mind in two
and shatters the fragile id
with its force
a thought not abandoned
but haunting and clamorous
demanding attention
filling the soul with despair
the mind with dark forebodings
from the other side
of the pit in which all evil dwells and
emanates to block
the view of celestial heights
with degradation and disease
that pollutes the spirit and
brings the mind to its knees
with unspoken pleas for release
when the heat of the mind over wrought
with despair
causes the synapses to fuse
the neurons to misfire
and torment to never cease
until wrought with torment
wrought with pain
you send a bullet
to your brain.