i.
knife beneath a fingernail,
peeling filth that calcifies
carapace husk to ornament
the wreckage made—
ii.
a saboteur wearing my skin,
i collapse soft-shelled and slag,
liquified under corpulence of
self-aggrandizing—
iii.
agony a song in my own key,
compulsion violent expel
contagion that seeds the
deadly first—
iv.
kaleidoscope opalescent
absolution sovereignty
transmutation essentiality
instar ascensus imago