Archive: Someone Else's Rope

Someone Else’s Rope

-James Townsley-

Silly Hopes Strangled

by someone else’s rope

The wisdom of God turns once again

into a bitter struggle for happiness

Let me go

or make me an automaton

To be controlled without feeling

Is a Joy worth laughing

A sadness worth crying?

This poem leads nowhere

The imagery is dead

A freedom once had

Is death once revoked

Words collected

to fling in the fire

Burning themselves into nothing

for they light no one else’s way

They told me I was superior

And I believed them

Like I believe in Jesus Christ

An endless magic carpet ride

In an endless poem

Silly hopes strangled

By someone else’s rope

--written 1995 or earlier