Pride and shame

Pride and shame,

two edges of the same blade

forged in burdensome love and conditional care.

Words lost in translation,

sharp daggers scooping out pounds of flesh

One hopeful, striving and reaching,

testing elastic limits, hoping to break free.

One last mountain to climb,

running with blinders on,

feet bleeding from a perpetual wounds.

How many more races, hard to reckon.

Breaking, crumpling, its majesty shrinking—

years of blood, sweat, and tears

mingle into ashes unknown, unseen.

Rising to its new name, shame

wears a cloak of resignation, a crown of thorns,

amnesic to its own bright flame

that once burned bright, the talk of the town

Now wisps of suffocating smoke rise

from the ghostly, bent figure

disappearing into the fog

of infinite expectations

Without a trace.

From memory,

erased.