Eating your tail

You are noble
you are kind
you are sweet
you are wise.

You are caring
you are deep
you are understanding
you are all of these beautiful things.

No matter your nobility
your kindness
your wisdom
your sweetness

No matter your care
your depth
your understanding
the poison will slowly seep through your scales
and feed you your own tail.

Nobility, kindness, wisdom, and sweetness,
care, depth, and understanding -
these things will no longer suit your character
and you'll have no choice
but to try on their antonyms for size.

Then your skin will shed like a decaying garb
revealing all of these beautiful traits anew
this pattern will repeat once, twice, forever
until you have shed your deepest layer.

Your truest form will find liberation,
and become the symbol
you had suffered through time
of the snake that eats its own tail.