The Partner Poem by Seamus O' Brian

The Parthenon of your fingers
tapping silently the interval
of trust fragmented and falling
like grains of sand in an hourglass
that won't stop turning, won't
stop counting the indictment
of your betrayals.


"You know I love you, brother? "


But the compression waves of air
that vibrate to the frequency
of knifed serrations of treachery
do not conform to your desire
and Judas-lipped they whisper,
"Liar."


"Go ahead and sign it.You know
I just want the best for your family."


Your eyes probe the distance between
us, and I do not see flesh but gears
calculating not profit or gain, not
estimating my faltering resolve, but
something far worse, in fact,
I'd gladly embrace the simplicity of greed
far more than the twitching hunger
I see in your eyes for leverage,
for control, for mastery of another man.

The webs of darkness that weave
the murky contours of your heart
are beyond the penetration of my eyes,
beyond the retinal fibers of my soul
to not only understand, but even perceive.


"I'm doing this for you."


But I've never had dinner with a cannibal,
a man who'd feast on another man's soul,
dance on the dust of his family's bones
while sipping the wine of a hell-mortgaged throne.

I set the pen down with the weight of my world
un-inked on the lease of the only life
I've been given to ride on this carnival'd twirl,
and walk my way home with an unfettered stride,
with nothing to gain and nothing to hide.