The skin, admittedly once ravaged

by a disease, adult eczema,

taken to extremes

as it ate into my hide,

on the back of my neck, through my scalp

and deep within sweat glands and fur,

is nothing to the leper you have made me

become…

…the glory

in which the smile never leaves your face

like some twisted marionette, string

-less, pompous, arrogant

and once divine to the point of deity,

bow down to the clown

as I once did,

now this leper, confined to the fringe