This is no friend but a recurrent dream
that brings fear and shrouds my future.
The shackles of the past hold me tight,
a prisoner in an old sanctuary
Flee the door and fear not the broken stair,
Steady your hand upon the rail and
watch for the treacherous threshold,
a precipice thinly disguised.
So many times my flight is
thwarted, my escape an illusion where
the speeding lift delivers me only to a
platform of deception and deceit.
We are all captive here, not me alone,
as we climb and fall and seek to
traverse these dark and hidden corners
whose secrets never are revealed.
I know this dream, we meet often and I
wish to travel it no more. My soul is
tired of this dark and perilous journey
where every step brings dread.
Behind me now the jeweled city
in the bright morning sparkle. I flee.
A bridge, a train, a river. My toes skim
the water as freedom beckons.
Jump, jump, let the train go.
Squelchy, marshy ground and pools
of water between my toes. The river
guards me and I look back no more.
