Madness by Moonlight

I see it there, so brightly silver, rising swiftly into an indigo sky,

Majestic in the night, a full circle—I feel as though I'd wish to die

Rather than again be forced to bear the pain it brings even once more.

Bound by moonlight since childhood, how much more can I endure?

A night etched forever in memory, old scars still left unhealed,

When I, innocent, wandered off, and there my fate was sealed

In a snap of sharp, biting teeth and crimson blood, by another,

When a gray she-wolf in the darkness became my feral mother.

So I was born again, a wolf-child, in pain, in blood, in tears,

And cursed eternally, ever to suffer through these many years

Forever trapped, ensnared in Selene's bright cords that bind

Fast. Invisible they are, but tangible to body, soul and mind.

I feel the agony of the Change course through me now, the pain

That brings shrill screams from lips and tears from eyes like rain.

Human mind and reason diminishing, burned away in sliver fire

Quickly replaced by a rising tide of bestial savagery, lupine ire.

Morning. The slow, excruciating pains of human form's rebirth,

My body now broken yet again and bleeding scarlet on the earth.

It matters not, I suppose; for I'll heal, so what, then, is one time more,

Or many? I'm resigned to this for always, yet I dread what is in store.

Trapped still between two worlds, one half man, one half beast,

With she, cruel Artemis, my keeper, and I shan't ever be released

Except by black stillness of Oblivion and sudden, grasping Death,

And with every moon that passes, so nearer, too, comes final breath.

If only I might have one single night, just to be free, human. Right

As I was truly meant to be, never marked that still long ago midnight

Indelibly, in flash of knife-sharp teeth and spilled blood's vivid stain

Silent testimony to a tale of innocence ever lost, stolen in blinding pain.

So it was, forever will it be. Such is the tragic lot of the moonchild,

Beast and human, mind divided, soul dark-tarnished, heart sore, wild.

A duality eternal, pain echoed by sharp cries in moonlight, ever to resound

As an echo in the empty night, the stars solemn witness to all thusly bound.