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Tangled Web

Writing Prompt: “What a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive”

What a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive

Strands are sticky, catch us too
as we lie and fib, try to keep our cool

Words join, twist, form a pattern
circle round and round like rings of Saturn

Spectacular stories, pieces of comet
shattered moons revolve in atomic vomit

The plan was meant to smooth our way
but astral debris hinders plot to betray

Fabrications develop, along with suspicion
hurdles rise from others to thwart our mission

The coiling labyrinth takes on a life of its own
we can’t speak with others, can’t even use our phones

Because untruths told have grown and grown
our original purpose has become unknown

We are drawn into a deep black hole
a point of no return from our deceptive role

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The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice – –
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried,
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do – –
determined to save
the only life you could save.