Caught between
fear and despondency
it came as two trains
passing in the night
with him on the center rail
too frozen to choose
too barren to cry
too orphaned to commit
hearing the screams
from the dying polarity
tearing him from the center
of his emptiness
daring him to move
while forcing him to stay
the 8th deadly sin beset…
D-E-S-P-A-I-R-I-N-G
with the sound of the fury
the pressure and the heat
******* out the last vestige
of the man he had been
before all hope gave in to fear

(Septa’s R5: March, 2022)