"Nothing ventured, nothing gained,"
But people never speak of
The part that says,
"Nothing ventured, nothing lost,"
Which is much more important;
A sentiment, a shield.

Distant, detached, disengaged;
Accoutrement to cope.
In nature, fugacious.
Human condition, fleeting;
Faith fades like liquor,
Or the last in the carton.

Pen put to pages;
All words have their place.
Time now has come,
To leave and move forward.
One last drag,
Before I go.

An aching sadness
Now collecting dust,
Like a childhood toy,
Now all but forgotten.
Brought into the light,
Despite my best efforts,
Like a deadly poison,
With a certain sweetness.

A lone ember on a sinking ship
Not enough to start a fire
Before its drowned by salty water
But enough to leave an ugly scar

Have you found God?
Or have I found treason?
I'm a stained black flag
Waiting on the winds of change

But these winds, they never come
The flag sits unmoving
The flag sits defeated
Like the victim of the hangman's noose

My compass turns in circles, and
I cannot see the stars
Endlessly, aimlessly I sail
In search of my Northwest Passage

A path I know I'll never find
But its all I have left
An immaterial keepsake
That ties me to this world

For now, I'm lost at sea
Imprisoned by my shipwreck
But the jailer will one day die
And leave behind his keys

Strung like spoils on an iron ring
And maybe one day I will find them
As they sink to the ocean floor
And maybe one day I will be free

But that day has not yet come
And until then, I sail
Through thick, eerie fog that hides
The way to my Northwest Passage

Something sacred taken;
Torn from fingers grasping
At a wraith of things held dear.
Avoiding grasp, fog-like.

Helm now unmanned.
The captain, apathetic,
Navigating blindly;
Insidious, with guile.

All things ephemeral, truly.
Permanence, an illusion.
Substance made fluid
Endows fluidity of mind.

Driving through the streets,
Like a banshee in the night.
I've got nowhere to be,
And the road goes on.

A covered rearview mirror;
There is no looking back.
Just knuckles, sore and white,
And the road goes on.

New streets discovered;
Avenues never taken
Meet corners I've never been to,
And the road goes on.

I glimpse a wraith behind me,
But this car moves only forward,
Past repeating street lamps,
And the road goes on.

Headlights cut through fog,
But not quite well enough.
I can only see so far,
And the road goes on.

And the road goes on.

It doesn't help to wallow.
It only holds you back.
It doesn't even matter;
It's just a thing that happened.

Keep your head up, and
You'll make it through, I know it.
You're starting to **** me off.
It's time to move forward.

What happened, happened.
There's nothing left to do.
Accept it, learn from it, sure;
But do not let it consume you.

Someone's keeping you down.
Someone's making you feel like ****.
She's a *******.
Most people are.
Everybody's figuring it out.
She threw you away,
So then, **** her.
It doesn't matter if you're lost or not.
Someday you'll find your way.
You can't know others till you know yourself.
I've been through ****,
And so have you.
And that's fine.
Keep developing, as long as you do that...
It's not different.
We've all been through ****.
Nobody's had it easy.
It's part of existing.
It's about how you accept that.