a self-portrait

--- the Panzerschreck of pinpricks
have trained and formed the resilient
but when the cup overflows
it is but natural to succumb to vulnerability
until it is emptied and becomes ready
for another bombardment ---

"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work!"
- Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart