I (Careening Paths)

My hell had been the flatlands,
stable, changeless, endless emptiness in all directions.
Each goal an end, a death from which no new life arose.
Merely repetition,
lock-step march of resignation.

But I had known the wolves, the apes, the fire.
Inside I seethed
and knew my steps
deserved an earth more fluid
and paths more wild.
I felt my body twist and writhe
and stretch and tear in anguish.
And i howled into the night
and began to reel and spin.

Each step and flourish of my frenzied dance
caressed the landscape
with a lover's touch,
and it began to undulate
and tremble.

And I set my feet upon
those careening paths that skip and reel and dance
across the heaving landscapes
of a dream that never ends.
I flail and spin, but never fall
though every step takes my
into an endless, fluid abyss.