Paralysis Hovering
by Odin Roark

How demanding this passenger
Sitting beside us
Train
Plane
Bus stop
Mountain Trail
Makes no difference
To this wanderer
Caring not for our weakness

Preying by habit
Whether by walk
Run
Sleep
Or encounter

Paralysis seeks vacant seats
Opting for willing company
Continuing the silence
Its volcanic heat prepares
Knowing aloneness invites
Company often without discretion

Even as we struggle to remain aware
Bondage opts to trick us
Passing on as it does
Pages of distractions
Volumes of escapism

Yet

Our inner sanctum
Asks we generate shackle-free expression
To fill blank pages
Embracing the mind’s devotion
As it battles to stay ever ready

Nature
Flexing muscle
Still of syllabic reason
Pumping blood
Rich with immunity-rich life
Provides our human form
With peerless sentient infrastructure

Lest we forget

The marriage of greatest importance
That commitment between mind and heart
That relationship inoculated against divorce
The undeniable power of volitional passion
Struggling through molten eruptions
Willing to bear scars and open wounds
Is the honor of survival

To succumb
Is to shake hands with paralysis
This most insipid and disguised
Of all dysfunctions

For even as one may desire pleasure
Shirking responsibility of passion’s quest
Invites the all too willing gatekeeper
Lurking in the shadows
Keys clanging like girders in a hurricane
Patiently waiting
Ready to bestow permanent impotence
For sharpening its most cherished weapon
Cowardice