Compliance — a poem about finding comfort in reality

Compliance

Was it random fortune or set-in-stone fate
that led me to this broken yet bountiful place?
I eulogized childhood dreams on this gravel
and watched as hope seeped
into the ground like spilled blood.
Still, the meaning of my days and nights
is wrapped around the branches and trunks
and it lifts me up into the moonlight
where my mind shines
even as my body dies.

I adore this lonely dwelling
even though it killed me twice.

I could run or I could declare war.
I could hide. I could wear a disguise.
Instead I assimilate.
I don the gear and cock the weapons.
I learn the lingo and I shoot the shit.
I think I'm getting the hang of it.

I hate to say that they were right,
but glossing and primping a dead body
will never make it come to life.
There's comfort in the coldness—
a certain honesty in the lies.
We may be decomposing,
but I'm damn sure it's our time.