Each Path

Each path I take throughout this life
Is gilded thick with thorns of strife.
They tear, they shred, they scratch at me,
They rip my flesh, my blood runs free.

Each path grows higher where I walk:
My blood dries thick and covers up
The crusted mess of those before;
Each drop adding, slowly, more. 

Each path is slick with human slime,
The thorns are all I have to climb;
Though striving is a painful tread,
To stop my crawl would leave me dead. 

Each path leads on, I know not where,
The effort all-consumes my care,
My straining mind directs each step;
My straining will is barely left. 

Each path through never-ending grey,
Is intertwined in mass array;
As though the coiled muscles tight
Across my frame: a twisted blight.

Each path has left my body worse,
Behold me now: a living corpse.
I wish to rest, but can’t escape
These paths which I forever scrape.  

04.11.19