Invictus

 In this place of wrath and tears

And the horrors of my forty years

Grinding pain that scorches and sears

My heart with ocean of poisonous spears

It matters not how my fate

Was inscribed at Hell’s gate

My winged fury does not abate

When Death comes, it will be too late

For I have suffered her fangs, her bane

When she bit into my heart and vein

Her rattles like clanks of mooring chain

That bound my heart to the world in vain

My heart is bloody, yet not cowed

Deafening silence or beating aloud

My soul still soars upon a cloud

Though my shell is covered in a shroud

Maxwell O’REILLY