The Great Gatsby

The unmoving grin

Of a death-white mask

Stares back at me

Attracting me

Repulsing me

Drawing me forward

Irresistibly-

Until the snake of a mask

Shivers and skips

Slithers and snickers

As it falls from his lips

And I behold

A face of melting wax

Gratingly screaming

In its own heat of lacking

Something

Not the thing

It got long ago--

Yet still the money

Drains into envy

Which then becomes bloody

And the mask clamps quickly

To gorge from his body

And his mind dissolving like snow.

I ran to the shoreline

Eager to jump in

But beheld the faces

Concealed by the din

Of lost souls and meanings

Never quite found

Whose stare made me pause

As I stood on the ground

For in those lost faces

Which screamed peeling away

I saw my own life

On this wide worldly way

But still I borrowed a boat

Eager to go on

With what I thought was life

But was really a con

So I wrestled the current

Against the wind

Though I was mist myself

And would quickly bend

Extinguishing others

As I sought my own fuel--

A few seconds worth

Of ignoring what’s real

For my boat is the deception

Assuring me that I’m free

Though I’m headed for Satan

As my compass spins around me.