ESCAPE

ESCAPE

in this time of insane
darkness
let me plumb
the darkness I own
and what owns me

do this first, see
what I can see there
take with me whatever
miniscule light
I can find, I can spare
to explore this abyss
determine
what exists

ascertain whether
when it comes to
this evil madness everyone
is talking about
yet
   in its thrall, under
its spell

I am indeed its mirror
perhaps more something
deeper
    more causal, creative,
wholly implicit

****

and here we are
deep inside this structure
must be
a mausoleum, a tomb,

considering
    that I
for better or for worse
have completely
overvalued
my place here

wondering if
I were not

just
a flash
of something

a sort
of a spark

or, it
there is continuity,
a pinprick
of light

frozen for an instant,
momentarily freeze-framed

left bone alone
to contemplate the darkness
around me, moving through me,

not the worst
of all possible worlds
as last moments go

poor souls I catch everywhere
as they die, deaths recorded
by every
kind of medium

pulverized, annihilated, or
plunged into the nadir
of all hellscape

surrounded
by fire
no hope
of escape,