The shadows lengthen, cast by minds aflame,
Where darkness whispers, an insidious refrain.
They walk among us, cloaked in normalcy's guise,
Yet harbor monsters in their avaricious eyes.

Why do they choose this path, so treacherous and bleak,
Where compassion crumbles, leaving souls to shriek?
Is it the lure of power, a thirst for dominance obscene,
To crush the weak, to bend the will, to rule a cruel regime?

Or is it greed that drives them, a insatiable desire,
For wealth and status, a consuming inner fire,
That burns away all conscience, leaving only hollow shell,
Where empathy and kindness, like fragile flowers, fell?

Perhaps they seek to leave a mark, a legacy of pain,
To carve their names upon the world, through suffering's reign.
To revel in the chaos, the tremors of despair,
And revel in the brokenness, the burden that they share.

But does pure evil truly reside, a force that breeds unrest,
A primal darkness, where conscience lies suppressed?
Or is it something simpler, a flaw in human design,
A broken compass, a twisted, darkened line?

We search for answers, in the labyrinth of the heart,
Where shadows dance and flicker, tearing souls apart.
For in the abyss of darkness, where morality takes flight,
We find the echoes of humanity's darkest, endless night.

© matthewwwebster