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

c-thru

Can you see through this skin

That I have made transparent for you?

Does it bother you to see me laid bare like this

With my life brought into the sunshine

The light shining on the parts you find ugly

The liver spots

The man in my arms

The book unbelieved?

A woman wrapped in a rainbow flag once sang to me

To be the one to walk in the sun

And to show my true colours

And I longed to heed the music and open my heart

As faggots cheered with fists in the air

Now I long no more as I walk and show

And I am happy

Except for knowing that as I flame

I burn the ones I love.

c-thru

Can you see through this skin

That I have made transparent for you?

Does it bother you to see me laid bare like this

With my life brought into the sunshine

The light shining on the parts you find ugly

The liver spots

The man in my arms

The book unbelieved?

A woman wrapped in a rainbow flag once sang to me

To be the one to walk in the sun

And to show my true colours

And I longed to heed the music and open my heart

As faggots cheered with fists in the air

Now I long no more as I walk and show

And I am happy

Except for knowing that as I flame

I burn the ones I love.