You are on a very long list
of those who can’t though they persist.

Learn the lesson of Achilles heel--
there's something that doesn't want you here.

You hold tightly the images of misguided faith,
role models and illusory joy;
but graven images topple
as slow as dry rot
and Pandora quietly fills
your box of toys.

Your house is projected and frozen in time.
Twenty layers of wallpaper are peeling your mind.
Rooms untouched like
100-year-old
Mason jar preserves;
you can't eat fruit kept for so many years.

Your choice of worlds kept the patterns;
no new beginnings mean the same old ends.
You may not break all the rules
but you sure make them bend.

Grace seemed to touch you as you walked a mile or two seemingly content.
But no matter how amazing
the grace was,
you can't be where you never went.

As long as scapegoats hang on crosses all
along this highway like rows
of pigs hanging bloodless
at the slaughterhouse
and as long as
Western religious pop culture icons
and other social images replace what is real,
the roadblocks and washouts
will continue to keep you there.

Achilles protected everything
but his heel.