Poem: “Remove Before Flight”

I walked among the treescape
Alone in shade then night
I smell the great fruit’s gathering
And gag at rotten sights

A dragon in the cobbled path
Stalls at the formal start
Paralyzing in periphery
Ejecting me from far

I know the way to fight it
Is to embrace defeat
Since if you choose tomorrow
Today you have been beat

I wander below treescape
Ignoring wildfire’s gleam
The path that’s lit beyond me
Seems more mirage than dream

A monster in my vision
Nips closely at my heels
I twist and stand before her
And cherish what she feels

My eyes aligned uncanny
Churn missives of indifference
Hot tears attuned stead for me
To wonder and significance

I come across the food crumbs
I’d dropped along before
Without knowing, without speaking
They unveiled my very core

The cryptids ghost before me
Untouched beyond spotlight
They must come from within me
From burn and stab and bite

I’m glad someone was listening
When told I did not heed
I knew not why I wanted
I feel now what I need

I crawl below the treescape
Past garden’s swell delights
On one wrist carved out  “focus”
The other spelled out “fight”

The angel perched within my ear
Won’t sit still for my bloodless fear
My pulse, remote, now quickens
My final breath draws near

I face the devil in the path
He mirrors my own face back
And shrieks a laugh he stole from me
But doesn’t let me pass

I flash red wrists with reticence
As mild as he is rude
Inaction bids me to decide
I’ll think and speak
and do the things
He claimed only he could

With weeping wrists I work alone
Compile some treasured trash
From that and fallen wood and stones
I construct a shoddy craft

Throughout I shed the elephant skin 
Which droops and drags my weight
Through work, forever unfinished
I supine myself to wondrous fate

I wheel it past the treescape
To pastures azure in moonlight
I admire my handiwork’s red tags 
And remove them before flight

I graze amidst the twilight
Then pray to winking star
I thank the evils for their time
And for blessing me so far