learning to walk

I've walked this path before, you know.

I've walked it fast and walked it slow.

I've lived every excruciating detail.

there is no chance of failure, say i

there is no chance that this will end today

in any way.

I won't let it end here!

W H O  I S  F R I E N D  A N D  W H O  I S  F O E ?

Only for the judge to know.

For our fated friends are now discounted -

hardly known and hardly parted -

and where do you go to sleep

in the city that never stops your sins 

from crawling on your back?

And what should I say, as a matter of course?

Let to the fore, not to know, but to force

the hand that can change the circumstances of man

and yes, of course it helps that I'm a fan!

but that isn't enough.

it was an honor to meet you.

goodbye.

such is the way that it must always, always end.

there can be no mercy,

for that would just offend.

what are we, without our balconies?

where is that tree that waits

and strings us up by fates

that grow like strangling roots to choke out life.

are we but budding, growing strife?

I feel a powerful need for growing things,

like nothing I have ever known before.

to whom do I implore?

and could i dream she'll take me as a wife?

The heroine appears.

Not in the flashing of the light,

but in the crashing of the gears.

I could dance with you all day,

but bloodshed drives our kind away.

I've walked this road with you before.

I've walked it nice,

I've walked it more.

I have lived in grim detail.

I cannot fail.

While you have died a thousand times for love.

This place fits you like a glove, and yet -

it cannot end here.

I will not say to have no fear -

full to the brim with it,

sick with sin,

but still you strive forward.

This is what it is.

A love letter.

A cry to the future.

A last, fragile grasp on something once claimed in full.

There was once rule,

Order,

Reason and power,

I choose to not believe that it will flower.

Though I've walked this road before,

soft and still, recalling all,

seeing fog and breathing shadow,

unbent back before the fall -

something in me says no more.

There is no more room for doubt.

There is only what's already out.

The bone, the blood, the sweat, the tears.

The secret wish, the hidden fears.

There is only one place left to go.

There is only one road left to know.

The ways are hundredfold and one.

The human changes with the sun.

I will not let it end here.

I will not let it end here.

I will not let it end here.

Though your doubts  -

span the universe -

are as countless as the stars -

are as nothing to me.

Though your thoughts -

wound, wound with a thousand cuts -

are all you have, and all you will ever have -

are as but air that you wasted, on sharing your folly.

Though your sins -

crawl upon your back -

are recorded on the marrow of your bones -

are enough to make me fear and know your might.

I will not take fright again.

This heartache was always coming.

You are not powerful enough to stop me.

I am not powerful enough to save you.

This is the greatest gift we could receive.

Esoteric, yet unbound.

Deviant, but defiant.

Unsound, yet eager.

Such is my way.

Purest safety.

Deadly poison.

I don't expect you to understand.

I don't expect you to not try.

I don't expect.

You forget; I have walked this path before.

I have gone where you cannot ignore.

I am oft out of tune; yet thrust to the fore.

The fool, as it were - and yet beyond compare.

A true fool does not threaten.

A true fool does not take arms.

A true fool does not fight back.

And yet, here we are.

On the path again.