and it wasn’t the obvious,

you know – that reining in

to some spot you rather not be in,

compulsion, addiction, coercion, strong armed,

forced, manipulated, duped,

to some path you would not choose

if the options were better.

this is where it gets gray, hairy, nuanced, debatable

when defense, prosecutor and judge sit by

the table,

drinking coffee, slicing up a bacon, finishing up

the dessert,

a table that is cold, empty, void of passion

for conflict is a spring under tension

ready to snap back at a rustle in a bush,

never mind that it is just rabbits playing

hide and seek.

the gavel bangs on the courtroom,

verdict made!

verdict squashed by a higher power,

the mind turns judge, prosecutor and defendant

to smoke when symbols serve the i.

crossroads, decision points, a running train

heading out of a tunnel –

smashing, crushing traffic lights no longer needed.

a maze of sorts, the trickster hops off the damaged plain,

makes his way around the nooks, knots, crevices

in the labyrinth of synapses, neurons, axons, dendrites

where reality bends to imagination.

the devil came as an angel of light,

why suffer?

red lights flashed in a non existent road,

already creation has evolved, rebuilding traffic

stops – no need to wander in a maze

said the kindly old lady helping the i across a street.

the villain whispered that the world out there is a lie,

he is only leveling the playing field

while the hero has become old, drunk and smelly.

a villain who shines like the sun,

a hero that stinks like a bad pipe that has burst,

and all the while coercion came as a trojan horse.

it all depends on how you tell it, the story teller

smoked another pipe,

whispers fell on a drunkard who no longer cared

to fight –

i was a hero once, he wheezed.

the sun brings warmth, is illuminating, gives life

and the trojan horse slipped in.

i am aware,

i am careful,

i am the predator.

they all more or less told themselves the same lines,

each embraced the poison lining,

unwrapping christmas gifts fit for a king.

defenses fell, guards fall asleep, heckles not present,

it is a lullaby.

when violence does not break,

honey almost always does the trick.

the war would be won either way,

then the reining in halted,

on hindsight – it was quite evident

how it all started.