Sacrificial Lamb

A long time ago; in the life of a child beginning to learn the intimacies of suffering, sleep would not come.

Men would come to the cage inspecting their ..TOY..

Four days and three nights with no sleep.

T'was a game you see. The child was theirs for another six months; theirs to do with as they please.

Sleep deprivation.

A rain drop in a down pour of pain.

The collar is secured to his neck; the men lead him to the show.

A slab of concrete is the stage tonight, a post drilled to the center holds the boy now secured with a chain.

The audience enters, scattered proclamations of excitement float from the crowd.

Black hole.

Absence of emotion.

Compassion touches not a soul in the abattoir.

The boy is nothing now.

In this place truths are beaten into you.

Nothingness.

After so many performances, the child is learning in this church. An apt pupil.

The true religion is wrapped in barbed wire. A hymn sounding of piercing blades, wet slaps of broken skulls.

The song begins for the boy.

It will never stop.