The Demons Created By Distance

"requested by and for Jilli" When downfalls the snows of indecision, The ground fades and the paths dim, My eyes strain and blur with flecks of frost, Loosed tears fall as soundless hymns. So long I walk these quiet streets, Alone with thoughts that haunt and rage, Criminal ghosts, they thieve, get arrested, Slipping their cuffs to rattle their cage. The chains in my head clank and scrape, Passing days as chalked multiples of five, Scrawled on walls in a cell in a catacomb, Adorn the black mortar, white and alive. The dogs of decisions I cannot make Chase me like wolves in winter fields, Mottle-furred and fanged evangelists Preaching and snapping my dragging heels. And the demons created by distance Growl at the light cast far and away, And croon of exotic closer things, In tones of soft heather, smoky and grey. Every alleyway is now blind, All highways are road-blocked and jammed, And it feels whichever way I turn, One way or another, be damned.