Ribbons - Will Stratton

Maybe I don’t recall just how I found my way at all,

But I remember dreams like bark peeled off by fire.

And I recall the sign as it melted in the light,

And the sense that the times were turning dire.

And my brain just ain’t the same since the poison in my veins

Fought off the foreign cells that sent me fading.

I’m very much alive, but I’ve lost sight of the mind

That raised the hell and blurred the line that kept me waiting.

How does one write about who one used to be

Before the sterilizing waves of the redeemer?

Particularly when it’s so hard to find a pen

That’ll write it in the longhand of a healer?

And while I try to age my words get dense and they get plain

And I forget to wonder where I had been going.

Perhaps the simplest way through is to learn what not to do,

And the years will take away the need for knowing.

You spend your body while it’s there, change the ribbons in your hair,

Make sure you pledge to your love in the field of honor.

Try to seize night by the throat, keep your hands inside your coat

Until you’ve stumbled on a well and need the water

You know the times are staying the same

Don’t take the weather for a change

It’s a simulated progress that we’re after.

Just look at all the circling crows, and try not to hold your nose

Until the fire finally engulfs the rafters.