The Ritual

Nihilist:
Being observed,
makes you feel undressed, naked.
A linear, ramp rage
rises.

Pieces of time
fall in your mouth. You start behaving
erratically. Hawthorne effect?
You know how sharp, stout
are the stings?

Testicles shrink.
The unrelenting zero burns the fat.
The emptiness was howling.
Time was dying,
and dying was time.

Satish Verma