I Am Home

Lose sight of the goal and just keep moving forward.

Seductive songs of the coyotes piercing through the dawn
Screams to my soul of the real meaning of right and wrong
I'm not carrying all of the world's weight on my back
But all of my world's weight is
And every step I move a little bit higher above the plain
Rows of wheat extolling the virtue of the earth mundane
I'm not stopping until I'm stretched thin on this rack
Adrift and left to my own devices
It's time to take the step through the gate

My hands drift to the obsidian handles doused in flame
The pain is nothing I don't deserve in my constant shame
From being nothing more than a mere mortal reaching
To pull open a door I don't deserve
The crackling sizzle of my fragile skin blistering away
Reminds me of the screams in my head and all they say
It's no wonder I'm driven by the constant preaching
I'm drunk behind the wheel at a curve
I'll never lift my foot off the pedal now

The frowning arch above me is encouraging when I turn
The meaning of all existence upside down and let it burn
And I willingly step bare through the poison thorn
The warmth spreads in rotten vein
The feeling drains from my feet and my ankles scream liar
I drop to my knees at the edge of the white swamp of fire
To drag myself into the waters on broken vows sworn
All the treasures before me lain
Thrown away so I could swim with penance

The sins of the past have grown vague surrounded in fog
Thickly and darkly sucking at me like the mud of the bog
I will pull myself through with willpower alone
I dare you to try and stop me
Ahead of me is the island floating in the silvery ether
That I will reach by grappling her body from beneath her
And I've finally come to reap all that I've sown
Blinded by white I cannot see
Whether I'm at the edge of heaven or hell

It doesn't matter
I am home

Author's Note

Written while hitchhiking around working on my craft.

Reviews

[Heather]

I have read this poem so many times...there is so many parts of it that make me think deep thoughts, dark thoughts but welcome. The second stanza blows my mind, every sentence creates a picture of a man so broken, and yet so strong, crawling through his personal hell on his way back towards the absolute end. The last stanza brings in that inner strength of a survivor, standing defiant. Poems like this make me LOVE poetry and the power of words.