Effulgence

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published I am a beast suffocating in the skin of a man, a wild thing dressed in civility, snarling behind gritted teeth. My soul scrapes the walls of life, claws bleeding, eyes burning with the need to see something real, something savage. The city wraps around me like a carcass, bloated with its own sickness. Glass eyes staring, metal bones creaking, choking on its own complacency. I am not meant to be confined, not wired to fit into the grid, to tick boxes and walk lines. I was born to roam, to tear at the fabric of routine, to taste blood and lust on my tongue and feel my heart stampede through my veins, hooves on cracked earth, wild and unyielding. Instead, I am bridled. Gagged and bound by duty and decorum, drowning in the hum of mediocrity. But sometimes, in the stillness just before dawn, I catch glimpses of the other side— the one that walks quietly, head bowed, shackled by the mundane. A ghost of myself, fading into the grind. And it terrifies me. But I feel it building, the fury. It's a primal scream lodged deep in my chest, clawing its way up, scraping my insides raw. It's a wolf pacing in my gut, fangs aching to sink into something beautiful, something fragile. I want to break through the polished surfaces where shadows masquerade as flesh, splinter the glass that traps the wild in its cold embrace, and scatter the shards like confetti over the streets. There's a storm in my veins, electric and relentless. It chews at the leash, gnashes its teeth against the manacles of routine. I can't sit still. I can't breathe in this sterile air. I need to run until my lungs collapse, scream until the sky splits, tear down the scaffolding of civilization and watch it burn to the ground. I am the wilderness festering in the heart of the metropolis. I am the feral heart that beats too loud, too fierce, too untamed. And I will not be smothered. I will not die quietly in the cage of conformity. I will rip my way out, howl my defiance into the night, and watch the world crumble around me, because I am more than the machine. I am more than their chains. I am the wild, and I am coming undone.