wide-eyed optimist carrying bible from one high school class to the next reading the text in study hall even believing that freedom was obtainable along with unobstructed success if one only puts forth honest hard efforts but now i’m a self-defined survivor all grown up with a greater sense of my own history and its stages of delusion and foolish trust so now i’m drained of milk and honey and filled with the liquid steel of reality and truth what about you
stumbles on broken sidewalk heart pacer kicks in unable to rise moment of hope sees young family they stare away walk around her on the street good parents teaching child not to speak to strangers bruised struggles to find her new iphone tells husband morning walk has gone awry
night embraces you in cloth of hidden shadows with sequin street lights pulsing through the growing fog sanctuary for nightmares moments unwanted making you conscious of death and unable to sleep
like a proverbial joke we can see the light at the end of the tunnel but here’s the punchline it’s death’s train all the stations along the way life’s stages were places we could not stay no matter how much we enjoyed them so here we are living another platitude looking death in the face
