Month: November 2025

Like an addict, with immense effort, 
I extract myself from family’s chaos.
I build a temple of calm and hope
its gravity will, at length, rescue me.

Or I escape my stifling home, 
tuck and roll through broken glass
toward freedom. The city lights shine
for me like burnished youth. 

Or, broken on the wheel of the world, 
I retreat to easy familiarity. 
There are rules and old fights
but they are worn down like old church steps.

Or I want all these things and more. 
The only story without complication
is an obituary. I break and mend,
am distorted and still shine.

I tried once to touch the sun
and broke, my body and mind melting
too close to the source. Another almighty
test that I, like Abraham, failed. 

I fell into the labyrinth to convalesce.
My body healed and my mind wandered
those walls, taking every left turn until I found
the hollow at its core. Then, I could see. 

To burn brighter needn’t mean half a life. 
Turn over, find another wick, and ignite it. 
The melting wax may fall
and build up on both ends.

A paradox, you say? 
Yes, that’s right.
I prove my humanity
by my contradictions.

I swim in my head, a bowl too small. 
I turn and turn, my spine grows curved, 
to echo the walls that lead nowhere. 

I swim faster to try to hasten
the process and find the way out.
I will speedrun discomfort.
The space constricts to compensate.

I despair. How can I help anyone, 
how can I save anyone else
if I can’t even save myself?

Bereft of direction, I stall.
Without design, I rest

and wake to the answer: 
then I will have to save myself.
The walls in my head begin to bloom.

I will place no wager on a living man
so when it’s time for the money to go down
I pick the no less than the sovereign –
we the people
who did not vote for this
misguided and distracted as we may be
we will course correct with better delegates
who will meet the moment
and remember what we always knew
that the road to prosperity is through a
more perfect union.