JOURNEY FOR REDEMPTION [PART I]

I must keep myself alive, afloat, adrift in the current, but I must force a change of the tide if necessary. I cannot cling to the bank of the river. Not a leaf is retrieved. Not a single reprieve. I cannot cling to mentions of you. I must continue, I shall continue, on a journey for redemption.

[All is silent, until a couple of stray musical notes wander into the perception of human ears. Slowly but surely, the shards of guitar build on themselves, growing into a wall of rhythmic fuzz. The air is now ablaze with screaming chords, and the atmosphere of drums and synths begins to burn…]

[...]

[Is anybody there?]

[... …]

[COBWEBS]

I’m sweeping up the cobwebs in the corners of my mind

Leaving places, words, and meanings undefined and losing time

Echoes of the night reverberating with a cry

And a shriek as I call your name,

We are bound for the orange flame

Every hidden passage in the woods, I’ve walked on through

Every stone in the cemetery paid its chilling dues

Drops of blood are seeping from the wounds in the clouds,

Their underbellies torn by these blades of thunderous sound

All the creatures fitting in their niche,

But memories I left to rot won’t forget me

And the tomb where these skeletons sit

Is buried in the depths of my boarded closet

Don’t know who to call home, living in the unknown

Prey for a predator we know as status quo

Back to the fields, I won’t be praying when I kneel

The fairytales fall away upon discovering the life that’s real 

Tangling in cobwebs, and the spiders of my mind

Keep spinning catastrophes while I’m cleaning out the grime

Oh horror, my heartstrings weave a morbid masterpiece

A sticky situation, safe to say,

Must cleanse the energy with flame

And the hand that I held was the paw of a ghoul

And the fingers that were claws carved in me a set of rules

Now my skin burns with warnings, hey, don’t get too attached,

Or else you’ll light the fuse, or else you’ll be the match

An eerie, glowing, Jack-O-Lantern face

Smothering yours in the edges of my psyche

Until your angelic grace becomes replaced

And a demon roaring like a bear takes the stage

The connections I made, by a thread or by mistake,

They hang in front of me, a monster begging to be free

Now there’s a waking nightmare wrapped in cloaks of Halloween

I wish my bedtime story dreams were more than dreams for me

I’m sweeping up the cobwebs in the corners of my mind

Leaving places, words, and meanings undefined and losing time

Echoes of the night reverberating with a cry

And a shriek as I call your name— 

I put so many things away,

To cabinets and drawers in my moth-infested brain

But it’s a predator that cannot be escaped

Flying from the spiders and regrets, for we are prey

Cleanse the energy with flame

Am I bound to said flame, am I bound to my name,

Am I bound to yours, becoming one and the same?

Mad, driven insane, but there’s nothing here to blame

Set it all ablaze

[The blistering guitars echo into the distance. A soft rain begins to drizzle in the form of a twinkling keyboard arpeggio, but an uncertain hum in the bass frequency leaves room for pause…]

[...]

[There’s something on the ground.]

[...]

[Do you wish to pick it up?]

[...]

[On second thought, surely, you don’t want to. It’s hidden under layers and layers, anyway. Layers of—]

[... …]

[LEAF LITTER]

We got off on the wrong foot

At the wrong station, and now

We’re in a wilderness of twisted trees

Sprouting from the ground

I’ll reintroduce myself to you:

Born anew and grown around

The planting pot that once held me

And all the leaf litter on the ground that you see

I can’t be contained, so I scatter on the wind

Had a taste of sunlight, it fed me freedom in the shade

I await the day I can reach out from the cage and

Creep my way back up to the bright world I was in

Sowing those infant seeds

Leafing through pages, firelight

Forming dancing shadows on the floor

Of this forest of a room, those watchful eyes

Masquerade in charades, trust is in vain

Anchor my feet, steady I shall remain

At least I must, but can’t extend

These roots too far in the ashen soil

Summer lingers underneath

The musky scent of dying leaves

The floor’s a mess of realities 

It seems to me, seems to be,

That there is space for branches to extend

Even as the olden days drift away,

Rafts on the breeze, all the forest’s new debris

Evergreen and every season seeks to fall in line

Into patterns, and our lives all rhyme sometimes

I can’t be contained, so I’m riding on the wind

A tinge of sunlight flutters in the edges of my view again

I await the day that I may leave this static cage

But for now I’m peering right out through the holes,

Hacking at the metal, making dents in rigid roles

While leaf litter whirls around, floating in my wake

Breaking up perceptions of the real, and of the fake

I’ll be living an existence for myself that I will make

I’ll be living for a future that I know I’ll find one day

[If you listen closely, underneath the birdsong and rustling trees and memories of the end of spring, you can hear the crunch of footsteps through the woods. Our Dreamer is continuing on a winding path to an uncertain reward, but knowing that whatever it may be will be redemption in itself…]

[The journey continues…]

[... …]