Remove this mortal coil The nucleus of life, a vestige flame Where memories are adrift in a capitulum hollow Remove the heart and marrow The perpetual rhythm in a pallid cage Replace it with thorns, dried with age Scar me, bleed me Remove the ghost of being The spiritual fiber which makes a man Lost inside, haunting this fragile cavity Like smoke that abandons the flame A shadow's impression which never fades Replace it with thorns, dried with age Pierce me, release me Fill what is left with a coil of thorns Fill what is left with rusty nails Fill what is left with obsidian shards Shatter me, destroy me... Make me whole again Leave a briar of thorns where once stood a man There are fragments of wisdom in decline