22: Frayed

Memorabilia haunts the present.
Excruciating agony within the soul.
To lead a life of passion,
Living a life within a prison.

Throw away all worries of the past,
Forgo all hopes of the future.
Now is the only time that matters,
Yet fear gripes my very being.

Caught in a whirlpool of stares,

Angry pot shots from all about.

Floundering through swamps of deceit,

Scaling mountains of contempt.

The dread of pursuing a passion, 

Made so by scalding remarks.

The trepidation of condemnation.

The threads of sanity frays.

Intricate webs of metal thoughts unspun.

Whirling, twisting, swirling, unwinding.

The birth of one in the shadows.

I am broken,
Broken by a community bent on destruction.
A language of universality,
Despite the evident despicability.

Unmake my sanity,
Dress me in robes of wonder,
The illusions of insanity,
That might finally be my reality. 

21: Misguided

Streaming through the bayou,
Listing amidst the rain.
Rocking against the laws,
A thousand miles from home.

If I could change the world,
If I could change my fears.
Maybe I could change my fate.
Maybe I thought I could.

How misguided was I.
How naive am I.
To wrong once and again,
And never learnt.

The fog of yesteryear
Obscures and denies
A present path
The mysteries of life.

Where I stood,
Where I died.
A boy of five and twenty,
A man that isn't ready.

How naive was I.
How misguided I am.
To trust in life,
And faulting twice and more.

One moment of folly,
A lifetime of pain.
What's done been done.
The luxury of regret never earnt.

Toeing the lines of freedom,
The hardest frontier.
I'll learn it hard.
A lesson never to be unlearnt.