Portrait of an Artist as a Self-Mad Man

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A SELF-MAD MAN 


        My own big bully, every day I kick 
        Me, a little bully, squarely in the head-- 
        Such are the contortions of the self. 

        Internal rain: it is as if God 
        Were spitting in my guilty face 
        Without a break--No escape: 

        The strictest guard, my conscience, has 
        Locked me in a basement. Can't blame Him-- 
        Even I wouldn't let myself go. 
        
        


                                        Thomas Dorsett
                                         Epiphany Magazine
                                         July, 2012