The spiral staircase

By the stair well you stood

Weeping

It is such a long way down

With all the pain creeping

On stealthy feet

Upwards on those treads

Pulling your attention back

To a darker place that seems like hell

But remember darling you were young

And as the saying goes

Youth is wasted on the young

Oh to be able to live that time again

But this time in full consciousness

But that is not how living works

And later days can be full of regret

Or just pain for the ways we acted

Playing out affects

Of all that happened to us

That was never chosen

It was served upon our plate

And we carried it clumsily

Like a drunken waiter

Feeding the scraps

To alligators

Who circled beneath

In a deep dark pool

At the foot of the staircase

So energy spirals down

Feeling deep in cellular memory

Awareness now deeply engaged

Burning on fire

With the frustrated desire

Of a backwards yearning look

But the price is pain

And incineration of all our nerve

Seeing how much we were possessed

And now falter

And how much we suffer

With all we cannot alter

But on the landing

Above the staircase

A real life waits

It beckons us forward

We live each day with memories

We often wish we could erase

Being involved in living

Means we can forget for a time

That which will never leave us alone

On the lonely days we don’t engage

Where we hover close by

And are called upon

By the ghosts that whisper

Their painful messages to us

From the bottom of

The spiral staircase