Little boy

A poem with a loose but quite challenging structure - the start of each line echoes the end of the previous line in some way - aiming for a feeling of going dreamily and endlessly round in circles without being able to escape.

Who are you, you mysterious boy?
Boy who wanders through my dreams
Dreaming of freedom from your fear and pain?

 

Painfully, obsessively, you pick at the dirt,
Dirt you think sullies the wholeness of your mind -
A mind that so desperately seeks to be clean.

 

In clean, neat script, you wrote “Little boy”, again
And again on your hopes’ bright, torn page…
Torn in your heart and fearing destruction.

 

And destroying hope, the dark blood drove you to despair -
Drove a cart and horses trampling and stamping,
Stamping confusion where you should have been most sure.

 

Oh sore-conflicted boy, who wanders - all alone
And always lonely along paths that are so strange.
Stranger to yourself, adrift in an ill-fitting world.

 

Our worlds met, one day, and I played at your side,
Beside you briefly in the sunlight, ’til your fear’s leaden weight
Led you back to tread again those lonely paths of shadow.

 

For the shadows in your mind led your search astray,
And so you strayed unknowingly into the marketplace of the soul,
Soul-bewitched and swindled by its rainbow-sick illusions.

 

Illusions - the gift of healing, the lure of special insight-
But fear’s insight blinded you, and your hurting heart
Hurt others - hurt them, yes, far more than you could bear.

 

So barefoot and soul-battered, so lost and so alone
Your lonely shadow wanders on, in life and in my dreams.
Oh dream-bound boy, how dark the paths where you are bound to walk.

 

I wish you may walk safe and sure through your life’s dark maze,
Unmaze yourself, grow strong, and be the man you wish to be.
Be whole and true, and know the peace of being who you are.