The Seductive Lure

Habituation eased into town long ago

Thought to be natural
It was
Praised as stability
It was
Embraced as destiny
It was

Procreation ruled the nights
Delivery rooms the days

Time passed and like flies to a sugar fix
Habituation swarmed bank tellers on payday
Local bars on Friday night
Churches on Sunday

Workweek habits continued
Harassment ‘round the water cooler
Ass kissing ‘round the bosses
Entitlement ‘round the calling-in-sick phone

Then something happened

Times got rough
Unemployment rose
Businesses shut down
Preachers sought donations elsewhere

Habituation stumbled out of town

Dark became the memories of enticements
Cobwebs hung furtively
Tying unlit lamp post to shattered neon signs
Side streets to alleyways
Locked doors to broken windows

Summer storms passed over
Leaving muddy puddles
Their rippled reflections
But gurgling echoes to the moon
Goodbye waves of regret

Today

Not far down the road
A new infestation of impassioned hunters
Polish their duplicitous wings
Awaiting yet another bounty of ignorance
To buy into the inducement
Of both flight
And fright

Believing this
Believing that
Unaware that allurement
Is a barb of many disguises

Just as

On a clear night
Or a dew-covered sunrise
Bodies of all colors
Will flicker from the webs of
Habituation's seductive lure
Turning tomorrows entrapment of dreams
Into fractured ambitions dangling
Like a Lament for Icarus