Mask of Glass

For Tony Snippe

Sit down, 'friend', let's have us a chat,
I'll start by saying that I smell a rat,
And you don't need to say a word.
Haven't you heard?
Now your mask is made of glass,
And I can see it clearly, your heart of brass.

Be silent.
Your words, cheap lies, they've polluted my mind
A sweet-scented fog in which no one can find
The truth.
But now the smell turns sour
In your final hour
Like a whores' rancid perfume
Her abandoned carcass rotting in your room.
Nothing can hide the stench.

Did your jaw just clench?

I can see in your eyes, the surprise, now the desperate plots you devise
To escape one more time, scrambling to climb
Out of this pit that you fit
So well.

I consign you to hell.

And I just thought you should know:
I've laid out the victims in a row
Their wounds and their scars,
Your unmistakable mark.

We're done. You hear me?
Through.
Take what you've stolen,
Eat what I grew,
Though none of it was ever for you.
And with every bite,
Know that you brought the blight
On yourself.

With this verse perhaps I'm the first
To break your mask of glass
And it won't so much as scratch your heart of brass
But now everyone can see it, at last.