Mine to Take

I sip a tall glass of chilled poison and call it wine. I choke on more than I can chew but take another offered bite. My last breath surrendered to justify my lack of air. After all, how can I allege force on a feed that I've permitted? Red-handed robbers cover my eyes. Their sticky fingers point and poke at my self-doubt. A stolen sense of self taken by my failure to object to its taking. Wreckage waits for those with misplaced worth. And I am led astray by the very night as stars appear within reach denying the sky’s deceit as I drown in its reflection. But a gentle nudge turns me inward. A whispered tide shifts and shakes, freeing the voice from the depths. The one that's been beating against the walls of my self-imposed prison. Scattered debris, pity, doubt, sabotage detach from the self they once plagued. And I emerge like the voice once trapped, myself but cleansed, stripped of debris, baptized by the stars. I tread the path to preservation, step by cautious step with twists and turns on the long road ahead. But I walk with worth, beneath the stars, with stars, alone to lead. On a path that's mine and mine alone to take.