Imagine being a trapped fly
Resigning to a trapped life.
Your limbs flail about in despair
Your wings buzz in a futile escape attempt.
Indignation at first, that rapidly fades
Into confusion, anxiety, fear clutching your insides
Till you lose all hope, silently wait to die
And you realise
It's the same scared light you see in man's eyes.
Imagine...being a trapped fly
Resigning to a trapped life.

Barely floating 'neath
The weeping sky; no reason to live
No reason to die

Suspended high above
Dim flickering lights; no reason to live
No reason to die

Ashes hide behind
Comatose eyes; no reason to live
No reason to die.

"I shall write a poem today", says my mind
Though I know, ultimately no verse will be designed
And many a day has gone astray
In wait of a single, inspired rhyme.

"I shall write a story today", claims my brain
Even as I watch my thoughts miss their train
And a screen stark white mocks my plight
While the cursor blinks expectantly in vain.

"Maybe I should take a walk", I surmise
And far above me, in the skies
A troubled bird drops a ****
And inspiration splats between my eyes.

The people I meet
Seem like forgotten voices
In an old, long dream.
The sunlight on my skin
Seems like the faraway light
Of a ship disappearing at sea.

But the clouds, the clouds float by
Suspended chaos amidst the trees.
'Neath my torn feet, swirling grey and white
The mist has no form; shapeless, like me
If only, if only...

Light fades away slow
And your feet move backwards
Underwater, underwater now
Shh shh shh, bubbles of time
Float by your eyes, glimmering
Glimmering
Black; in the dark every thing drowns
Back back back, you go now
Flow back, rewind to the start
Shh shh shh, it begins now

Kiss the child goodnight, tuck her in safe
Lest she should dream of escape
To a world where rainbows circle the skies
And you are not who you have striven to be.

Kiss the child goodnight, make sure you turn off the light
Lest she should be unafraid and bold
In the face of the infectious fear
That flits through your eyes in a dark, alien alleyway.

Kiss the child goodnight, hold her close and tight
Lest she reaches out to the same sun
That burned your naive fingertips
And shattered your lofty castle in the clouds.

Kiss the child goodnight, don't let her open those eyes
Until she is finally lulled to deep slumber
Wrapped within warm blankets
And the beginnings of complacency.

Kiss the child goodnight, watch her sleep in silence.

What it would be like
To meet yourself; a stranger
Mirrored in your eyes.