Allegiance by Michael Clay
My unconscious allegiance
Was all it took for me to be out of sync
Even though I executed detailed instructions
As a detailed executioner

With no breach of rule intended
Sometimes I cut the loaf
And others, the breadboard
Until the slice and splinter
Became the bane of me

The protracted exposure to that annealing light
That ever, deepest thought revealing light
Made jumping back to edge of night
An ever so appealing sight
When after all
The hand suspended over searing fire
Will soon pull back by reflex

For all that penance and self-inspection
One must eventually recognize
The self to see in that reflection
The will to join and be at one
Is the self we have been all along