Delirium

“Delirium”
Painting by Alan Derwin
From saatchiart.com

underneath bone
lurk the shadowmen
thrusting their lancets
at clusters of nerves
neuropaths in extremis
declaim to the brain
of unbearable pain
mortal wounded they
die by micrometers
slowly too slowly
torn axon from axon
unbundling themselves
naked raw and exposed
retrograde destiny
plagues perpetuity

brainwaves defend
themselves conjuring
any distraction but
pay psychic price
living nightmares
dredging dark
channels hallucinate
operas of terror
twist spasms of mind
in irrational shapes
of a misery no one
could plan to endure
dual torments of
body and mind make
a man become fiend