I Erected a Castle Around the Girl I Loved

I erected a Castle around the Girl I loved.

At first,

To shelter her

From Me

And the Pandemonium from where I dwell

(For I am fecundating with self-destructive compulsions strapped to my conscience).

At the very foundations, I sheltered her from my voice.

And with each stone, it grew

—as an addiction—

From passages of underground channels

Into a fortified monstrosity of lifeless pillars, and cast-iron bars. 

The higher the turrets, the more I sunk.

By now,

The girl I love is long dead,

Beautifully pale and fermenting,

And outside of its walls,

I rock back and forth in a louse-ridden shantee,

Fighting gruesome tirades

That I could only overcome

By mustering the courage to confide my love to her.