When the flames break through

Firey tongues lick and smother

Consuming us all

This silver sickle

Reaps and binds these fragile stars

And makes the sky pale

Seal my lips with coal

Black bishop can’t hide from night

Dig a deeper hole

Through this twisted frame

We weave, wind and wend our way

Then head home again

Rush to the mirror

Flags flutter in fighting frost

Reading to myself

Veins divide the sky

Fractured sunrise fragments gleam

Scattered thoughts deflect

Autumn turns the trees

Hedgehogs hibernate, birds leave

Why am I the unchanged?

Halos on the frost

Surrounded by falling dust

And yet try I must

However I try

With word, reason, time or rhyme

I can’t change a mind

I have come undone

Not sure how to carry on

Ripples break the sun

I drove them away

Locked the doors and barred the gates

Yet I cannot change

Stand under, outside

Can I run for any size

Or reach the sunrise?

At each turn a block

Heavy heart turning to rock

Have I lost my flock?

I put on this robe

Reluctantly, either way

I fall on deaf ears

Standing in the dock

Doors and windows start to lock

Tangled up in knots

My veins flow with oak

My brain overcome with hope

Why do I still choke?

However I twist

Contorting myself like twigs

I can never reach

Cherry’s spring display

Rivaled only by the burn

As leaves fade away

You’re so far away

Far beyond where I can reach

I accept defeat

We’ll get there somehow

The space between then and now

Push on with this plough

In secret corners

The fallen leaves gathering

Muster thick as thieves

This labyrinth life

Every bend takes us further

The end out of sight

Some things never change

Everything won’t be ok

See what’s bright today