The Lost

I’ve lost my way 

The path is obscured

Cloaked in foreboding shadow 

My steps unsure 

Treading warily now 

Yet I continue on 

With dreading premonition 

The way I’ve always gone 

The warning becomes louder

Soul blaring in alarm 

My steps slightly falter 

Aware of potential harm  

For ahead lies a chasm 

A cursed, camouflaged hole 

Waiting patiently for my fallen arrival 

To devour my soul 

I no longer want to walk 

To flirt with this fate 

I must turn back now 

Before it’s too late 

But my feet are separate from me 

Defiant, sentient beings 

Dragging me on to a place 

I no longer wish to see 

No matter how much I fight them 

And yell and beg and plead 

My feet trudge forward 

Unable to get free 

Before I can escape 

The trail of doomed defeat

I fall into the abyss

Hungry darkness claims me 

I awake in a cage 

Plagued with a Stygian blight

Alone and Imprisoned  

With no hope of the light 

How can sorrow feel both

Burning, yet so cold 

I have nothing, am nothing  

But a ruined, damaged soul 

A desolate wretch 

I fall to my knees 

Calling out for Him

The only One who can save me 

The darkness begins to lift 

My soul weeping in relief 

I cry out to this savior 

Screaming, “Please don’t leave me.”

The light pulses brighter 

I grab the first thing I can find 

I take hold of His garment 

Clinging to the threads for dear life 

But the savior offers more 

He extends me His hand 

“Follow me” He says

And you’ll never be caged again 

As I take His hand 

This savior is the key 

The cage disintegrates

Never again to ensnare me

I spend more and more time with Him 

Now that I am free 

The savior leads my steps 

My feet once more belong to me 

I thought I lost my way 

But I see the way was never mine 

All on my own 

The way, I’d never find 

I was destined to fail 

Ignorant to the cost

That without the savior 

I would always be lost