I return to You time and again
Because I wander;
Because of the hope
And the joy I have squandered.

How can this vulnerability,
This seeping, desperate trust
Clutched while falling,
Be any form of tough?

How can I reintroduce hope
Into this myopic entity
Living in the failures
Of a brief eternity?

How can I hope to be resilient
When I barely stand
As a crumbled ruin
In a forgetful land?

How, under expectation of sorrow,
Can tenderness share
The hope of joy, faith in tomorrow,
Grace that can bear

The weight of every yesterday?

I must change my vision,
And my line of sight.
Tender enough to listen;
Tough enough to fight,

To never recoil
From the pain of what’s right.

Each night he takes him in his hands
The lump of cold, dead stone

And he winds him up, and winds him up,
So we are never alone.

And I hear him ticking, ticking, ticking
Across the empty space between us,

Like a tyrant laughing, laughing, laughing
Forever undefeated

Reminding me each second
of the victories he’s wrought

When we thought all battles ended,
And no wars again be fought

This timeless wonder in his palm
Splits seconds, so divisive.

He laughs, he ticks, he gloats
Unceasingly derisive

And I am wild to visit harm
Upon that little metal piece

To end his reign, to end his lie,
To give us some release.

Wild to pierce his skin, and smash his face,
To rip out all his sense-

Oh, the damage I could wreak
Would all be self-defense!