Inside Out Poem by Paul Gottselig

This poem is dedicated to Chevelle Behar.
You helped keep me Outside In. You saved me from myself.

What happens to man, when he's turned inside out?
When everything that's pure and serene,
is exposed to the world around you.
An inhospitable world full of hatred, violence,
and all of man's deepest and darkest afflictions.
Like a Black Plague, sent to ravage and destroy
everyone and everything it touches.
And no matter how hard you try, or how hard you fight,
you still can't rid yourself of it.
What happens when your very heart and soul
are picked away by the constant need to consume?
Your energy exausted to nothing by all the people
you love and care for.
The very same people who hide behind their fake
smiles and phony laughter,
while bottling up their anger until it turns to rage.
And when they can no longer stand it, they release it.
They give away the gift that no one wants.
And they give it to you.
The only need you have for it,
is to feed the constant burning fire deep within.
Then it eats and eats away at you,
like a crow picking the flesh off a rotting corpse.
Until you finally have nowhere left to turn,
nowhere left to run or hide,
no one left to love or care for you,
and nothing left to give.
Well, that's when you die, and it all begins,
from the Inside Out.