Are you Lucas or is this Echo?
Knock again at the gates left unopened
if only to feel the vibrating voices
as they murmur vocables in the dark.
Reach in and you may never be able to return;
screams skim every surface
and fingers melt into shadows
until you draw them back
and shake at the phantom limb that moves of its own accord.
Pellets of mystery,
you must Dodge it if you can
or else that unbiddable demon will
slink into your cells,
mutter incantations of submission
until the I that was you is no longer.
They told me through goosebumps and hiccups
not to take the road less travelled, for
the woods enclose wonders
unbeknownst to straggling travellers;
loss of sense and direction
only ivy-ridden steps that lead to No Place and No Where.
Warnings and signs brushed off,
a bravado of nine lives and keys
on a sautoir, clenched tightly
up marble and dust as swallows
twitter encouragement in the greens.
Curiosity and ethereal pulses take over,
not the dread those flitting eyes told of
but heartbeats kissing the soles of my feet.
The doorframe bodiless, I face
wisps of Nothing and No One around the corner,
waiting to slip into open air
Art by Mafer Martinez
