Cycling Neurosis

 

I survive and will survive

but would rather thrive, like the ones who drive

I arrive at the intersection of tail-light signals

And the phantoms which swim behind windshields

in a trail between weaving cudgels

I survive and will survive

As belief abandons virtue for some pattern

Of anticipated nightmares

The light says walk, dismount and cross

sure enough, jump out as the minivan starts again to cross the

red

and forget I'm dodging the mind rather than the face the mind

wears

the mind aware of the face it wears, the face of its wares

I survive and will survive

As law devolves into ethic, one or the other

A seed of virulent neurotic anarchy

The teleporter will never be ready for us

We won't recognize ourselves on the landing pad

With the organs of our bodies preaching their delusions

To each other in the last moment.

I survive with a promise betrayed,

Willingly made, now a deal between

The real and the ideal, or how I feel

I would never become what came before

I become what those who come after will never become

Weaving among the cudgels

Complacent, playful, distracted, deluded ideals on wheels

Seeking the forgiveness we've taught ourselves to withold,

Silently praying a completely unoriginal defense for the lot of us.