Legerdemain

                                (Image from Feritrad.org)

Love lost is the most exquisite pain.
A crushed heart bleeds worse than the reddest rose.
Tears are real but unbelieved.
Words are mocked for being slave to sentences.
Lies can pass for the truth as craft is refined.
Promises linger for as long as they are heard.
Lecture a loser and he wins.
It's all sleight of hand.

Pain in the grace of God

I don't need no enlightened one
to tell me
that everyone suffers,
everyone dies.
What I want to know
is the why, the for how long.
The questions and sensations abate
after realization -- there is a point
to everything over and under the sun.
In a state of grace,
it hurts,
it's exquisite,
it's pain in the grace of God.