JOY EXTINGUISHED: eulogy for Gus

Your voice prophetic
Your spirit magnetic
Goth boy fire
Your energy electric

I look you in your eyes
Like I know your pain
Toxins flood your veins
Songs of guilt and shame

Trying not to cry too loud
Weeping in silence
Searing pain in your gut
Words to speak like violence

Cocaine lined up
Hiding deadly secrets
Longing to be heard
Yearning to reveal this

You know it’s fucked
When pain feels like pleasure
Your joy strangled
Your spirit untethered

You let us feel your pain
Because we got you high
This web unraveled
This maze in your mind

You were more than addiction
You were more than pain
Your radical vision
Of a world unchained

In pulsating rhythm
You sang a symphony
Drug fueled epiphanies
Etched in our memory

We still feel your joy
Flames still burn our eyes
Your tragic legend lives
Your fierce goth boy fire

Pulsating with rebellion
Your disease a curse
You were anarchy’s prince
Love now, cry later, it hurts

–GOTHIC ANGEL & BYPO PHOENIX c)2024