If We’re Stuck

If we’re stuck in the past, it’s resentment. If we’re stuck in the future, it’s fear. ~ Diana H.

Obsession. Fixation. Bedevilment
ensnaring my life. Escape?
Impossible! No matter how long sprung,
the trap can’t be loosened
but digs deeper, crushing bone,
tearing flesh as the wrong
plays endlessly, looping day after day,
year upon year. Should I manage
against all odds to wrest out
from the infinite loop,
to move to tomorrow, escaping yesterday,
the visions loom, a gaping maw of hell
sucking me in, terrifying, terrorizing,
paralyzing me as fear cowers me,
immobilized, rooted in fear.
When escape feels an impalpable fiction,
futile, ephemeral…
Only then do I find relief.
The trap has no teeth
when I dwell in today.