Hollow Cycle

Crumble to pieces and completely fall apart: over the same rock broken again and again.

Gasping for life, choking on death, frantic for rescue, but failure’s the current…strong, relentless.

Thrown upon the shore: battered, frightened, disillusioned, remorseful, ashamed, but resolute.

Strength to stand is gathered; strength to move is gradually coming. Must move forward, away.

Danger falls with the tide and shadow is cast over the memory of the very real danger.

Giant rocks appear above the surface…knowing their location allows for distance and security.

The beach is a beautiful place, so warm and inviting. The sunrise is awesome; paralyzing.

The strength to move becomes a desire to stay and dwell in this calm, serene and safe glory.

Tides are rising…already the jagged rocks are disappearing, waves breaking against them.

Water touches the feet, but the scenery and comfort are captivating.

Crumble to pieces and completely fall apart, over the same rock broken again and again.

Gasping for life, choking on death, frantic for rescue, but failure is the current…strong, relentless.

Thrown upon the shore: battered, frightened, disillusioned, remorseful, ashamed…

With a new resolve to stand and then to move…move forward…away.

But danger falls with the tide and shadow is cast over the memory of very real danger.

And we stay, and we fail.

*Analogy of temptation, and then sin. The cycle that we often find ourselves in. Sometimes we never learn. God help us.

The Seeker

Despite our best warnings, you hurdle the fence; we watch as you struggle for meaning on the other side.

Not quite knowing when it ceases to be our place to protect you from yourself, we hesitate as you falter.

As one we reach out to comfort and to heal, but your pride overwhelms us and we are turned back.

You know what you know and you continue your search among the dead and buried,

Still hoping to uncover something that may be revived…thinking it unchanged and savable…but we know better…and so do you.

You ignore the stench arising from your actions (nothing good…nothing good); we can barely breathe.

You are blinded by rage, passion, and discontent – driven to revive flames that have long been ashes; dust.

Frantic and delusional, you wander trails long ago forsaken. You hope to God they now lead somewhere else.

You know, and we know…yet you continue to search among the dead and buried.

Mesmerized by the thought that something may be revived…thinking it savable…but we know better; you used to.

*A short writing about one who scours the past for a better future. The “dead and buried” refers to the graveyard that is our past. It is important to remember that things, once done, cannot be undone. Obviously, then, the “stench” refers to the smell of decay one would encounter when digging up a grave. Decaying flesh is an offending stench indeed. The comparison here is that the one digging ignores the “smells” that are so obvious to everyone else. He is delusional to the point of actually thinking he will find the contents of the grave exactly as he left it, or perhaps, that some “life” may actually remain in what has been buried. The analogy behind the “trails long ago forsaken” is much the same. Blindly, the seeker hopes that choices he made in the past can be changed (or forgotten), resulting in different results. Scattered throughout are glimpses into the hurt and confusion that this search casts upon friends and family members – as this is written ‘by’ them.