i enter the battle alone

as two inner worlds collide
is it a duel
or dual?

same story
same lies
hidden wounds resembling
chalk-scrawl slashed on blackboards

backbone cracking
heart openers
bend and
release
truth
like poprocks

a veiled binary code
full of divide and conquer
messaging
or deciphering integration
as pure experience?

clarity rushes in
painting over inner landscape
in sunny yellow strokes
covering the dark gray soot
of deceit

the battle resumes
facing demons
grants secret crevices
permission
to ooze and release their shame

fragments scatter
like decaying autumn leaves
convening for a timberland
bonfire

the victor birthed it,
vast and boundless
charred and struggling
to fashion the mysterious
and singular
warrior

disembodied forested
illusion!
liberation simply
a semblance of
connectedness
of equals
on
parallel yet occasionally
labyrinthian paths

only ever one
the one that heals, nourishes and
marches on
and on
and on…

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Assistant Editor: Jamie Khoo/Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

{Photo via Putu Anggara on Pixoto}