The SWAMP REVIEW
Gluttony.
by Natalie Saelor
(The start.)
Sometimes you are forced into drugs, sometimes you are persuaded into drugs.
The Gluttony mask can be worn by anyone, hungrily waiting for you to be trapped within their grasp.
The dopamine you feel is pleasurable as you sense your gluttony grows within you; you want more.
No, you need more. You feel yourself growing higher into the blue sky, with the clouds greeting you.
Others around you wear the mask, and the smoke penetrates your room more as if it were a bullet.
(The addiction)
The smoke and scent follow you closely, as your wallet slowly crumbles like a withered rose within weeks.
You float in the sky as you feel free from all the troubles that once trapped you in a cage.
The warnings and alarms are whispering to you, and your once-filled wallet is now empty.
The fresh air you breathed was now just gray smoke.
The dopamine you once felt is now gone, and you’ve become the gluttony.
(Trying to put an end to gluttony)
Gluttony consumed you, you made many mistakes, and now you pay for them.
Others around you frown as the alarm in your head sounds louder than before.
The once-blue sky is now a gray wall, and the clouds that once filled the sky are gray smoke,
You try to break free from this box, but it seems impossible.
You scream at the gluttony inside of you, it mocks and taunts you.
The screams didn’t budge gluttony, You felt a sorrow drawn over you.
You held the withered rose and lit it as you breathed in the dopamine you once felt before.
Remember, Recollection, Justice.
by Natalie Saelor
(Remembering.)
Sometimes it’s forgotten, but sometimes it’s a nightmare.
Just like the screams and horror of a nightmare.
Instead, it’s real.
Everything comes back like a tsunami, as it drowns you.
Swallowing you whole, taking away your purity.
(Recollection of that night.)
The struggle to swim and fight, but no scream can be heard.
Your voice seems lost, as if your tongue had been cut off for punishment.
The water greets you with a smile.
Pulling you deeper and deeper without your consent.
Torturing you, as what it seems to be forever.
(Justice, dignity, and peace.)
Suddenly, you’re pulled from the water, it seems as if you’re free from your bird cage.
The Jury looks at you with pity and regret, as if they know you have been drowning in all this agony for overlong.
The judgment hammer slams to the desk, making an echo that shows its empowerment in the court.
When judgment looks at you, you fear the worst, as you want justice for what has been taken by force.
Judgment has been cast, and your fear disappears like thin air.
The once-tsunami is now just a puddle, no longer greeting you with a smile.
You are no longer drowning and have gained peace through justice.
The water that once surrounded you is now rivers that grow the field of flowers, as the sun greets you with a smile, once again.