in this infinite domain,
the bitter and dreary wilderness,
a fork with two well-tread paths awaits me:
do i accept my fate and surrender to the cage,
or bash against the bars like an animal in a kennel
with my whole entire being
until i can no longer resist?
this binary is certainly enough
to shatter the human spirit
in a million tiny pieces
that can never be reassembled.
but, if i refuse to let my eyes adjust
to the dazzling assault to my sensorium
radiating from the road of resignation, then
just barely, i can make out the faintest glow
of yet another pathway —
one scarcely tread before
prickled with lacerating thorns
and oh, so obscure and lonely,
with its muddy stream impeding every step,
leading to the ☼ne source
from which all things derive and depend.
dare i reach in my back pocket
and procure my only tool,
a blunted machete,
and hack away brush,
in search of the exit?
the rancid earth beneath my feet is sinking.