Wishing Well

Wishing Well

My right foot's jammed in a wishing well

My left foot's sending me straight to hell

I'm a south paw too so I'm demon possessed -

An outcast in a world full of lawlessness

They'll drag me from here and set me to pay

For a thousand sins in my head today.

I'm too good to be a criminal

Too bad I'm not a saint,

I'm trapped in the vice

'tween what I am and what I ain't -

A casual visionary and rogue missionary

Are these chains necessary?

I've nowhere to escape.

White square to black square

Black square to white

Tie my hands tight -

I won't confess

My mouth is dry –

I can't protest

My days stretch into nothingness,

Trapped here in my worthlessness.

I tell myself in time this too will pass

The last will be first and the first will be last

But in a storm of reality strapped to the mast -

Can't see beyond my checkered past.

And they'll burn me at the stake

When the gavel strikes the board

To my psyche I've become

Both slave and lord,

But of this I am assured

As the four winds blow -

Nothing is duller than the driven snow.

~Darkling Plain, Sept. 18, 2006