hollow shells

fear is antithetical
to everything we hold so dear
the impetus born of impotence
fomenting civil disrepair

when doting on the self, preserved
absurdity presumes its place
our ethics become bastardized
until we fall into disgrace

how boundless is the unknown sky
whose breadth of freedom lingers nigh
’til ignorance besets the heart
and wrests the mind of its comply

no solace for a soul condemned
when exiled by the ego’s id
redemptive reins are soon forgone
replaced by trustless narratives

whose bias stirs an untold ire
as fires unfold before our face
our conscience lost amid its remnants
fostering what fate conspires

such conclusions since foregone
e’er culminate the darkened dawn
spirits bereft of fulmination
spinning in their spires like pawns

with resolve and voice surrendered
frightened by our shadowed self
we turn away from all the world
to wallow in our hollow shells