The Inescapable Truth

by John Smallshaw
(London, England)

I never learn
I'll never learn
There'll be no learning for me
no A.B.C
no alphabet
All I get is the burning taste at the back of my throat
when my body's on fire
and I choke on the smoke from it.

I never learn
can't turn it around
I'm stuck to the ground that I know
where I leave a trail of destruction
wherever I go
and I'm falling apart
don't have the heart for a fight,
falling hair
failing sight
memory loss
spitting out moss from my (oh so dry) day
it's always the way
there's no learning for me.

I'm struggling through a sea and the sea's made from sand
and there's no one about to give me their hand
I'm alone in a land I don't know any more
and I can't find the door to get out.

So,
I take a bottle of 'Jake'
it eases the ache in my head by fogging my mind.
Then I find I don't mind any more
don't look for the door
don't want a way out
I shall stay in the sea sifting sand
making castles in the land
of the lost.