Torment Consent

By Cliff Lake

 

Torment Consent

 

Striking swiftly from the outside,

Restraint from steady hand wrested and pried,

Horror laughing while ill news betides:

The marching madness that no longer hides.

 

The dull acceptance, the bended knee,

The fading reluctance for all to see.

The base discordance: that is the key,

No counter-performance; tacit agree.

 

Harsh undercurrent

Roils and churns.

It’s waited long,

It takes its turn.

Claiming all

It’s never earned –

Now it smolders,

Soon it burns.

 

The sickly praising: craven applied.

Wrong rearranging taken in stride.

Bad paraphrasing: unwilling bride,

When all is blazing, who steps aside?

 

Harsh undercurrent

Roils and churns.

It’s waited long,

It takes its turn.

Claiming all

It’s never earned –

Now it smolders,

Soon it burns.

 

Who put us on this course we’ve plied?

A fall that’s sold as if a ride.

How much farther can we slide?

What resistance have we not tried?

 

Harsh undercurrent

Roils and churns.

It’s waited long,

It takes its turn.

Claiming all

It’s never earned –

Now it smolders,

Soon it burns.

 

Cliff Lake 5/3/2025

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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