All those times I waited for you

Praying for that conciliatory chance

Wasting away in a caffeinated crater

Performing scenarios in a mental trance.

A fool taking part in an onerous game

Your mysterious aura deemed unfair

Hope versus grace in a bruising brawl

Desires misaligned with roads to nowhere.

Memories now spill anxiety’s blood

From time-wasted wounds that sting like ice

In that cold dark cave north of the tracks

Where my external timidity paid an internal price.

This unrelenting pain now dull and can’t cut

Has become my slave as I mandate its order

It daily seeks to flee my subliminal snare

While its world is reduced to my compulsory borders.

So as I continue to mold this malleable misery

As I waste away in these caffeinated craters

I’ll bolster this pain with a reluctant ransom

Hoping grace will outclass your unconcealed disfavor.