The tick of the clock and the coo of the chime

We even forgot our own name

Dismembered the frame of the eerie sublime 

We even forgot our own name

Exclaimed unto no one the horror of pains

We even forgot our own name

Destroyed the old bird, mashing up its remains 

We even forgot our own name

A day or a moment; a month or a year 

We even forgot our own name

A chalice upon it has crumbled in fear

We even forgot our own name

Exposing the gears and the metal within

We even forgot our own name

A pile of the cuckoo just sits now; a grin

We even forgot our own name

And now in the mirror we look at just one

We even forgot our own name

As two, maybe three, or some more, never done

We even forgot our own name

The doctor has entered; the scene goes away

We even forgot our own name

The medicine helps, but my thoughts cannot stay 

We even forgot our own name

"So, Steven, how are you? Do you recognize 

The meaning of what I just said?"

And just for a moment, in clarity's guise

All voices desist in my head

And when he is gone and the pills meet the flush 

Remarkably, I play the game 

Again in the mirror, I welcome the rush

We even forgot our own name ...

Peeled off like an orange peel,

seeds of bittersweet memories

sprayed through blindfolded eyes.

I couldn’t even remember my name

and you seemed to have forgotten too,

as I struggled to remember you at all.

I watched as my subconscious thoughts

packed their bags and traveled

to parts unknown as my name

balanced on the tip of my tongue

dove off into the depths of the sea

tangled in encrusted seaweed.

I’d forgotten how to swim

out of the past and feared that

I would drown as my name

flowed into dark cloudless night.

Never mind, I forgot YOU

as you hid in my body cavities

but my bones were unable to tell.

Alas, I used to know the answer

             BY HEART!

A crash, a scream, 

    is this a dream?

Floor meets my head, 

    wish I were dead

Horrible words, 

    pointless, absurd

Mascara tears, 

    in darkness and fear

Anger so blind, 

    with terror you bind

I can no longer see, 

    just please set me free

Rage turns to lust, 

    what happened to us?

I was so wrong, 

    here I don't belong

Knuckle 'cross cheek, 

    dark bruise for a week

Next day the same,

    I've forgotten my name.

First we were herded

like cattle into the waiting cars

Poked and prodded and punched

then sealed up the door with bars

The wail of the train

voiced the screams locked inside

Nothing to drink but our sweat

Nothing to eat but our pride

Then we were shoveled

like hay, out of the open door

The boiling smoke of Auschwitz

welcomed ten thousand more

And there, we forgot

our homes and our love

We forgot our humanity

as into the ovens they shoved

There we were branded

and burned up like fuel

Broke our backs hauling stones

while they used us like tools

We forgot our voices could speak

Ashes snowed on the earth

We wished that we could forget

That fateful day of our birth

But no, we remembered...

remembered that day with shame

because we had forgotten...

forgotten that we had a name

Until the voice of our Maker

called out over the earth...

those names long forgotten...

that He gave on the day of our birth

Under time twisting backward, we made an entrance to the place below humanity where the hell-drowned are buried and the babies never cry. Forsaken with those breaths we once inhaled and allowed to escape - without wondering, without croon, without a single meandering question as to where we may have gone.

In this place, borders are defined but not enforced, and this creates a disarray of all that are still able to walk and hold thought. The grasping hatreds of the men here tear into one another and consume our empathy, what little ever existed in a few, and we feed on screams indicted by the thrashing of claws and the teeth only driven by division. We only see colors of skin and eyes, and never under this blanket of darkness will we allow a stream of light to wander into our prison and reveal what could have been agape with beauty, unity filtered through a prism in the form of every man in every robe of every fabric.

We lie in this mutiny of origin, under the soot, burrowed between reality and cratered fantasy of grandiosity, delusions not dreamt up by our own minds but of those egos before us.

And when the end of time caps what we once thought was eternal, we will halt our insanity in confusion, though never understanding, having lost all desire to reason. We will squint in failed recollection of ourselves only to realize we forgot wholeness - we even forgot our own name.

I woke up with four arms around me - two women and myself, a strange man in a strange bed. The woman to the left of me was dark skinned and had black hair falling upon her face. The woman to the right of me had auburn hair, full lips and a stud in her nose. Each of them much younger than myself and stunning. 

As I fumbled for a glimpse of a clock, the woman to the right of me opened her eyes after a series of blinks, saw me and smiled. 

"Who are you?" She asked me, her body exposed til her navel.

"Who am I?"I asked.

The woman to the left of me sat up, "Who am I?" Left breast exposed revealing a nipple piercing. 

"The better question is 'where am I'?" I was confused and could not recall what had occurred or where I was and who these two women were. 

They each covered themselves with the sheet and seemed as lost as I was. 

An apparition entered the room, spoke to all of us, then disappeared. 

"You were all in the elevator going down but I saved you and brought you here. What are your names?" 

Silence, confusion and the lights went out. A door closed, some whispers in the dark and then, laughter. 

The auburn haired lady spoke, "I don't know who you all are but we must have had a wild time, we even forgot our names." 

Laughter, giggles and moans. 

Collapse of Law

Loss of Order

Death of Society

Freedom of Mind

Freedom of Body

Total Anarchy

Left to our own devices

We become filled with

Evil vices

Chaos erupts

Darkness engulfs

Absolute Freedom

But at what cost

We are so free

Yet we are not at peace

We cry for

The end of Innocence

The darkness of Man's heart

Woe for the lost

Savagery

Overpowers

Civility

Absolute freedom

At the cost of our

Morality

Blood of the Covenant

Water of the Womb

All abandoned for 

The sake of Desires

Civility lost

Morality lost

Freedom is not free

We need to leave behind our

Past

To return to our

State of Nature

We even forget our own

Names

Growing up

Was really only physical

Our minds were growing down.

We were asked:

Who are you?

Our names. The only answer.

But our names were never ours

Not really.

They were the preferences of mothers and fathers.

(Of course, the interfering grandmothers)

When we grew older

What are you to be?

A question asked by anyone and everyone.

To them,

A question of which they had no concern

To us. Everything.

Eventually we knew.

And nothing could change us

That's when the world said "no".

We lost hope

We lost knowing

We lost passion.

Forbidden dreams

Forbidden longings

Forbidden lives

We followed

We obeyed

We forgot

Forgot our aspirations

Forgot ourselves

We even forgot our own names.

I aim to never disagree with you

May my opinions be ever your opinions

May I disassemble myself

So that you can rearrange my pieces

Until it is more pleasing to your eye

Until I reflect only your image

May you dig through me like a bowl of candy

Taking piece after piece

Choosing only what you like

Till I whittle away

And there is nothing left of me to remember

Not even my name