Gone Instead, a poem by Mark Anthony Thomas, about walking away.
Channel: Mark Anthony Thomas
Date: 20/03/2022

https://www.markanthonythomas.com/gone-instead
https://soundcloud.com/markanthonythomas/gone-instead

Gone Instead.

Stumble into heartache?
Claim joy while secularly fed?
Tumble in unforgiveness?
I'd be gone instead.

Measure up to nothing?
Find confrontation with fear?
Drown in ripples of self-regret?
Rest assure-- I'd disappear.

no room to misfire;
no time to waste time;
no comfort in comfort;
no time to serve time…

giving birth to fallacies
and testing for knowledge
of the book of wisdom
which I haven't read /

see-- I'd be gone instead.

Give into instabilities?
Hide revelation within my sleeve?
Be broken into misconceptions?
Guarantee-- I’d first leave.

Costume my shield & cross?
Live by doctrines I can’t convey?
Yield to evil’s degeneracy?
I couldn't— I'd walk away.

no regret to regret;
no time to waste time;
no endurance for endurance;
no time to serve time…

opening ears for guilt
and shame outlined in
the book of wisdom
which I haven't read

I'd be gone instead.

Mark Anthony Thomas
Copyright © 2004

Gone Instead is from the Poetic Repercussion.