Casting Shame Poem by Kurt Philip Behm

By darkness I trolled
in my oft-shedding skin

Hidden alleys I roamed
for new victims at whim

But at last I must face
the deception I've wrought

And repay every memory
that festers and rots

As my twistedrebellion
turns its anger within

No forgive or forgetting
or my blaming the gin

In the few moments left
as I slither and weave

Still bearing false witness
against those I've deceived

My venom gets swallowed
death final and small

With the light I once blocked
—casting shame on it all

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June,2016)