Broken Ladder

Fleeting, speeding through the blue sky
fingernails ripped up the fabric,
and let the demons through.

Keep your eyes straight ahead,
don't stray from the narrows,
fallen off the edge of the world.

Stay with the pace, rubber legs
sinews afire, joints on loan,
desperately climbing the broken ladder.

Now in the black clouds,
a portent of the dead
where the light is consumed.

Tiny minds sway, under the weight
of broken branches, each a path
like lightning, a parting of the ways.

Come to rest, belay the wind at your back,
plant roots, don't let them go trampled under foot
trampled under the guise sweet intentions trampled
over something in the way, anger and laughter
a late night changing of the mind, confusion
released upon the scorched earth, don't say you'll cry
after the flood of memories subside take them into
your arms,

and watch them fade away, dancing like
the mist resting on your grave.