Woe is Me

[gingerquiet]

A downward spiral
Yet again
Just throw me on the pyre
At least there's no speculation about the end

Wrangle all for the trial
The witnesses, I guess friends
Just one useless pile
Of stories I have to spin

They say once 'those' genes go viral
The perfect blend
Of those primal
Urges, no story to append

So that's it, no Romeo vial
No ivory to ascend
No god as my witness, no arrival
Just dirt and laquer to descend

To me, I get the impression the subject of the poem is a person who has been condemned as a witch, or is on trial, and is possibly being condemned to burn. I think you have the opportunity to really make an interesting metaphor here based on that idea, especially with the discussion of friends equally witnesses. Are they witnesses to the downward spiral? Who is the one putting the narrator on trial, themselves or an outside force?

I also appreciate the idea of a pile of useless stories--I think this could be tied into the pyre mentioned in the first stanza, like they're a pile of kindling that is going to feed the fire.

Do agree with what previous comments said about the use of quotes around 'those'...I understand the desire to stress the word 'those' to try to emphasize how it would be said if the phrase 'those genes' was spoken aloud, but I think that it would be understood without the quotation marks.