Manipulation is a two-edged blade
that cuts for good with puppets, medicine
and toys. Its nasty aspect is displayed
in mob convection, seething from within
but powered by an outside agency;
or scheming mates who have an axe to grind
and trade away a soul’s complexity
to gain a day; or teens this intertwined:

Reciprocating engines of desire
arrayed in cotton shirts – one size fits all.
Each masturbates the other to a higher
moaning aria. They caterwaul
on couches, they anoint the bedroom floor,
and neither can remember feeling more.