the futility of flight

“Flight usually intensifies the very thing one flees and establishes a special intimacy with it.”

                                            Thomas Moore

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There is so much she wants to do

So many places he wants to go

All of life lays out there

For the taking

For the living

But there are fears to be blocked

And pain to be denied

There are thoughts that haunt

Which must be hidden from

and so

with the intensity and focus of a young lover

he spends his days shutting down the voices in his head

and so with desperation she runs

from her fears

and all energy consumed

they embrace that which destroys

and in the grim and intimate grasp

those things which erode and destroy

they watch as life eludes them

perhaps there is a better way

where flight is banished

and one embraces for a moment

those hungry ghosts

and then lets them go

that with empty arms, and open hearts

they might embrace

what they care about

and do the things they want to do

and find the life

that has for far too long

eluded them