Dead End

You followed your path to a dead-ending street
and came face to face with a solid brick wall.
You say that your journey right now is complete

'cause there’s nowhere to go. The choice of retreat
is not one you’ll take. You’d much rather crawl
on your knees on this path in a dead-ending street

with no-one to see you accepting defeat
and no-one to give you a hand when you fall
at the end of a journey that’s still incomplete.

Until they have pulled up the cold winding-sheet
to cover your face, you’ll stand here and stall
at the end of the path in a dead-ending street

at the point of the angle where two brick walls meet
the place where the street dies, past any recall
the end of a journey that you call complete

though the rest of your road is laid out at your feet.
Back to the beginning, or over the wall—
any way out of this dead-ending street
and on with the journey that’s never complete.

--for Writer's Island and easystreet


Collection available! Knocking from Inside