“I have lain those beasts to rest,”

I declare, pacing by the litchi tree,

“the ones snapping at my heels, 

begging me to train them…

I have set them free.”

You take a sip from your glass, “really?” 

“I have, I have slain those demons 

that were yanking at my chains 

banished them from my life 

all their cries are in vain.”

From across the pond, the moon speaks

“So you ask for nothing for yourself

those dreams have been interred.

No hungers claw at your belly,

no masters to be served?”

“Yes, yes, stop bugging me,” I do not say

that deep in the night comes the moonlight 

whistling through a window in the clouds

I hear the clanking chains, feel the soft refrain

of the indifference I wear like a shroud.