University of Virginia Library

The Key

What is this overwhelming sense of self
that comes from hatred freed
expunged, examined
tacked to walls
viewed with lenses
magnified, the details
staring back through big glass eyes.
that fade away by sturing
as if my gaze itself
destroyed them like a laser
freeing self to soaring power
welling from within
erupting like a thick black plume
a gusher through a tower
Lewis Sanford Smoler