Penance marks down my soul's notches.
One by one, and always wrought slowly.
Turning the unwilled to succumb to botches.
Becoming tools for your heart's foley.
Echoing crickets through mud and thunder.
Stealing a last kiss before taking cover.
Keeping this stand would be a blunder.
Feathered, downy wings keep me a hover.
Over the chasm of caressing cinders.
Brought below to kneel the evil.
Shackled and tortured; It so rinders.
Cold and fallen my heart entrusts no equal.
Wandering throughout the valley of Death.
The slaughtering, the corrupting, and inky streams.
Cauterized; I feel no heartbeat to my breath.
Seduced me to Court my imprisonment of dreams.
Aberrant beliefs Glamour the way of new sight.
Twisting, gnarled and aching; Seeming all aware.
As swift as the air, an orphic muse took flight.
Carefully cradling the all new Castle Ayre.
Strings thus ripple out from within the mass.
Twisting, aiming, and targeting the key.
Swathed within madness, I find a gold tass.
Peering within brings the Castle to me.
II.
Wondering what happened, why this new scene?
I arrive to a festival that's in full swing.
They're all brightly colored, fragrant and clean.
Oddly they're children, and I'm guided to a spring!
They exclaim, "Look down!
You'll find what you seek!"
They then scamper off, and vanish under their feet.
I look down, then fall, as the floor grows weak.
A child sprouts before me, and says, "Now you two meet!"
My world goes blank, and I hold a warm hand.
It's pulling me along, though it feels like a child.
"Show yourself now, or I will leave this land!"
'You can't even see, why not go back to the wild?'
Cherishing that thought, I stay and hold dear.
'Hurry along! We haven't a moment to spare!'
She holds me so close;
"Please, may I stay here?"
'This is it! This is it! We are finally there!'
Then I saw light; Excited.. I awake?
That wasn't a Dream! I refuse to believe so!
I want to go back, not to become fake!
Let me go back! Return me to the ones I know!
Alone I wander the land I once kept.
Warm hands forsaken after all those times I taught.
Before that last road's taken, I accept.
"'When I get back, they will know I was caught!'"
