MERCHANT, Natalie
    
      
    
      
    
      
    Giving up everything
    
      
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
my hungry ghost of hopefulness
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
not haunted by wanting this
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
the fortune I was saving
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
I mercy-killed my craving
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
I've opened up my eyes for this
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
see the whole magnificent emptiness
    
      
    Gave what I want for how it is
  
for the stone inside and the bitterness
for the sweetness at the core of it
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
The master plan, the scheming
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
my cursed search for meaning
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
the compass and the map I was reading.
    
      
    The hinterlands I'm leaving
  
I'm finally leaving behind
    
      
    Giving up everything
  
the big to-do, the hullabaloo
The tug-of-war for some twisted truth
For the everlasting ache of it
No longer slave, not chained to it
no gate, no guard, no keeper
no guru, master, teacher
    
      
    See the slow-receding faces
  
dissolve to black, no traces