AROUND THE CORNER

You always knew it would happen again:
the ruby beams, the whispered code, the silhouettes, and then
a muffled crunch, a stifled cough, a soft and cryptic knock.

A latch that wasn’t fastened on a door that didn’t lock.

They’ll catch you, they’ll break you,
they’ll wipe you for sure.
They know your every step and stop:
where you are, where you’ll be,
exactly where you were.

What did you feel when your mind was removed;
was it hard, sharp and painful, or satiny smooth.
Do you weep in the dark, do you know in your heart
that they kept you intact when they tore you apart.
Does your lurching awareness obsess on your doom,
do those tiptoeing whispers leave prints in your room.

Keep moving, keep hiding, till death brings the end.
They’re just around the corner, they’re just around the bend.

Go leap out the window, go slip through the trees,
burn the leaves in your journal and bury your keys.
Haunt the alleys and rails as you sneak town to town;
one eye on your back, one eye on the ground.

So where was your head when they rewrote your brain.
Did you think you were God, a file, or insane.
Are you groping for clues in the patterns they weave—
is a single thing real in the world you perceive.

They’re coming. Keep running. Don’t let yourself fall behind.
They’re searching through your blackest dreams, escorted by the blind.
They’re watching from the shadows, their burning eyes aligned.
They’re waiting in the dark around the corner of your mind.


Okay. NOW COPY AND PASTE THE LINK BELOW TO READ HERO, A SPRAWLING, GROUNDBREAKING FANTASY FOR GROWNUPS IN TWO PARTS. (BUT YOU MUST CLICK ON THE PROVIDED LINK AT THE CONCLUSION OF PART ONE TO ACCESS PART TWO! THAT’S WHERE THIS WORK’S AMAZING RESOLUTION LIES. But please...intelligent, soulful readers only!)
NOW HERE’S THAT LINK:

https://allpoetry.com/poem/14922744-Hero---Part-One-by-Ron-Sanders

CLICK ON IT!

Copyright 2020 by Ron Sanders.

contact:
ronsandersartofprose@yahoo.com

feeling unkempt
left me untethered, you caught the next cab
south of any air
ill keep close ithaca, warm me from the inside, heading anywhere
be too loud for me
perpetually alone
keep me far from anything ive not learned i need to know

and earthly ties they’ll ask for closure
while the bed pulls you closer
feeling unkempt
choked me breathless, i climbed an unsteady ladder, running out of air
ill be dumb for you, bliss
wrap me in illusion
evidently ill be consequently blind for you
perpetually forgone
any sense of known
tell me again, call me your fool
feeling unkempt

ill forget me again for you.

Falling from my head
These thoughts that make us worry again
These thoughts that make us wonder again
These thoughts that make us
Falling from my head
This paranoia again
They’re watching us again
They’re always there to
Make me wonder
Am I safe?
Will they catch me?
Will they see?
It always makes me wonder
Can they hear me?
Can they see... Me?
Falling out of time
I dip and try to hide
From the monster I am inside
This monster growing
Makes me wonder,
Am I safe?
Will they catch me?
Will they see?
It always makes me wonder
Can they see?

The pilot commands
A robot to function
As they see fit
But when the pilot cannot be trusted
How will anything get done?
That is the brain.

You may free yourself from self-righteousness
and even escape the conical wasteland
of numerous embittered moments
but you will never evade the sense that
all the while someone is plotting their next move.

I've been in the rain
I've given others my time
time lost to the chance that being in the open would make me feel as so
would tan my pale demeanor
give my loneliness something to hold
turn my fear to boon

I now hold that that is not the case
for true nature is always an honest monster
how could I be so naive?
was it not the cruel world's air that sent me into hiding?

I should return to my dark comfort
my cave of paranoia
the only friend that always welcomes me
understands my need to be alone
to be fragile in a safe cell
guarded, protected
a perfect excuse
my reason to be recluse