Inclined to close my eyes before I open my mind,

Or sit in a dark room so I could be blind.

Deprived of the sense of sight I began to see

The world inside and not the one outside of me.

A curious soul I am so I set on a trek.

Never knowing when or whether I would be back.

Though the seeds of doubt could make any man fret,

They were eaten by birds of pray so a brother was set.

Across a threshold, a door of imaginative mind

No longer flesh but spirit… and locked in time

Every blink a tremor, every step a quake

Ideas were embers ‘cause burning thoughts they’d make.

Watching the seconds like sand slip through my hands I reckoned

I would stay for a while, but just then a voice beckoned

From a place much deeper than where the reaper resides

So I saddled my soul and mounted and me I did ride.

Into the depths of my mind I descended

In solitude but solace as I befriended

My steed indeed I was a welcome companion

Passionate but faithful like the loyal d'Artagnan.

Canyon below…I navigated the cliff

All the while wondering what eroded the rift

Could it be a river of fear that cut this valley

Or the winds of change that swept this alley

Clean of innocence? No one has entered since

Quite the way they did before I lost this inner strength.

Yet self-love has renewed my faith in feelin’

And even as I speak the wound it is healin’.

Feelin’ the minutes like wind flow by and send the cynic

To disbelief or grief, no matter I’m in it

Up to my knees much deeper than where the reaper resides

So I saddled my soul and mounted and me I did ride.

A stench foul like decaying bowels

Passed my nostrils it was coming from a hostile crowd

There I was in the middle in the grip of vice

Startled just a little but not riddled by these men of ice.

In the den of sin.

No doubt the reaper soul sleeper had lured me in.

Twisting the twine that binds the truth distortion

This is how the reaper performs his abortions.

Mad quick with the rip of life because the whip of strife

Will flip the scrip and have me suicidal with a knife

So I embrace the strife and do not fear my death

Then eternal life would be my wife and wife my breath

Blind to the hours go away they blow like flowers

I’d forgotten that the voice was still exerting its power

From a place much deeper than where the reaper resides

So I saddled my soul and mounted and me I did ride.

Up ahead I can see the path is worn,

Familiar roses, familiar thorns.

A déjà vu or two of back when I was born

And a temple where all my oaths are sworn.

It’s a place to be found I shouldn’t come here to hide.

The road was rough but the voice my guide.

Then I spy a door, so I slide inside

And now on holy ground, I shed my pride.

Next a child, a little shy but a little wild

Faces me, his smile about a half a mile

Embraces me, we talk and I said that I’ll

Come again…in a little while.

‘Cause if the days like dust pile up I must make my way

Back to the shrine and the boy that I saw there today.

See I’ve been much deeper than where the reaper resides...

And if I don’t take the reins, then the devil will ride.