Lyrics to Skinwalker

And at once I realize that the hand I hold is black with

corruption,

that the gilded rhetoric is a sibilant mantra meant to

stifle guilt,

that the staunch discipline of tradition is merely the

coward's path,

and that this descent into compromise is the death of

friendship.

I've witnessed you slit the throat of the young idealist

and impale empathy to the hilt of your sword.

You wear a stranger's face. Your eyes hold no

recognition.

Conceal the vastness of self-betrayal beneath the

scientist's cloak,

beneath the scholar's mantle, beneath the hedon's frock.

Drink the blood of this perverse deception.

Escape in inebriation.

Bonds consecrated in our most private moments.

Loyalty sacrificed in the blaze of denial.

My emptiness has built your altar.

And I worshipped myself in you forever.