Image: Sunday Skeleton: Artist: Lucas Grogan
Wine passes liberally from mirth to canvas
I steady the palate knife against your throat
In another life I might be the one
Uttering the final reconciling plea
But tonight it’s the kink in your history
That reinvents us, no one will ever remember
The tyrant that you were for who could
Face the ghost of such an impossible angel?
*
Hell cannot replicate
What I have unwittingly become
Sometimes flesh is a far more compelling mask
Sometimes appearance is the only
Demonstrative feature of a soul that has fled.
To live as a man does not imply humanity.
I have lived falsely, grievously and at great expense
To all those who held to the transformative power of love
But nothing can change a man
If he hasn’t substance enough to fill a mirror.
*
mindlovemisery 
The last line – intriguing. Feels good to start reading for the day with your poem.
Awww thank you Neeraj!
if he is unwilling to face the one in the mirror, to see what he has become, man will never evolve beyond this…
Exactly so Brian
But nothing can change a man/
If he hasn’t substance enough to fill a mirror.
A superb ending. If we don’t have a soul or a spirit, then how can anything transform us?
Thank you so much Phylor!
This is amazing.
“it’s the kink in your history
That reinvents us”
“who could
Face the ghost of such an impossible angel”
“Hell cannot replicate
What I have unwittingly become
Sometimes flesh is a far more compelling mask”
“I have lived falsely, grievously and at great expense”
“nothing can change a man
If he hasn’t substance enough to fill a mirror.”
What a powerful ending.
Oh wow thank you so much for your incredibly generous comments!
What a wonderful finishing line, among so many stunning images. Excellent Yves, one of your best.
Oh wow thank you so much Michael! I am so pleased you liked it =)
Oooh …. shuddery….. and I have to agree with everyone else here — a stunning last line.
Thanks Jen!