Writing's Toll

Sometimes writing takes you

Where you don’t want to go

Delving to the very depths

Of the darkness of your soul

The inspiration drags you down

Then leaves you there to die

So you write your way around

Just looking for the light

And in that darkness

One of two things comes to pass

You may wander aimlessly

And have nothing good to show

Or you may birth something

That could become a masterpiece

Sometimes when it’s over

You float back to the top

Satisfied with victory

Or dealing with the loss

But other times it happens

That you get stuck down there

No matter what the product was

You’re unable to get air

Just trapped within the void

The mélange of your past

The memories, the fears

The loneliness

The shame and guilt and dread

In those times I wonder

When looking at the page

Reading back the triumph

I crafted in that place

Is the cost of these creations

Worth the price I pay

Worth the constant drowning

In the blackened core of me

Perhaps the more dreadful question

Do I even have a choice

For if I keep the words inside

They will corrode my soul

So once again I fall back

Slumping in my chair

Glasses on the table

Pen flung onto the page

Staring at the ceiling

As I drown once again