Edward E. Bortot

Innocence Lost in a Black Embrace is a dark collection of poetry by Edward E Bortot. According to the author, this is the final installment of the Innocent Souls Trilogy. Because it represents the end of the innocent soul, it is starkly darker than the previous two works. This work explored a plethora of human emotions and states, including pain and sorrow, love and hate, spirituality and politics. The first poem, Within, is representative of the bleak tone that is throughout this work. Within Rip my flesh from my bone. Bury me and leave me alone with premonitions of 18 vision stone. The unmarked graves of unselfish slaves. A reminder of dehumanization in back alley caves. A savior in his mortality who tries to save. A treason brought fourth on a black day. A knife in the back that leaves a lasting display. Two faces of the same individual leading in two different ways. A faithless fling that sings with protruding force. A life being a blemish on a disdainful course. A stoic laughter in silence, trying to find its true source. The grains of sands run through my hands. A high stake life with deaths demands. You are no more complex, than I am a simple man. Innocence Lost in a Black Embrace is a thought-provoking collection of poetry that looks at life and people through a different lens. This work may be appreciated by readers of Sylvia Plath.