Nails Chewed
Nails chewed and I wonder
Is this anxiety..
or comfort?
Could it be I could slip out
Now,
Well before the sticky end?
I hear the cynics’ lament
"These things never end well"
I tremble…
I fear this piper’s pay
Is in currencies
I no longer possess.
Will this stop ?
So I may step off
And if not
May I take my leave now
Before their shouting begins?
This heaviness
I carry
Lightly as an act
I thought
Yet now I am bowed beneath it
As scene turns
And play ends.
What speaks out now
Is truth provoked out of silence
Repeating in ancient tongue
What was lost in the modern translation.
So we see what we know and fear
That what ends
Only ends when it does
And when we are gone
We’ll still be here
Exit left or right
We are not sure you’ll care.
So sit up and look straight
Eyes soft and legs crossed
Then with quiet breath
Set wandering mind at rest
Knowing now as always before
How hard it is
To leave these nails.