You Got to Toe the Line

You got to toe the line,
anticipate the falling off,
go there, the edge -

Sound footing is your enemy,
so are the familiar drones
of sorrow, ecstasy, pain.

Speak devil with your words
whisper in their ears,
be the eyes in the walls.

We should all live in a jitter
loosen from our skins,
shaken out of our cores

Like the violence
from which we were born -
explosions, acceleration,

Kill, no compromise.