Poem: The Gentle Ropes

a rope

The Gentle Ropes

They were so gentle
you hardly noticed them
as they settled around you like a caress,
enveloping you with a reasonable facsimile
of love

until the morning broke
and you saw them, thick and
all encompassing,
no longer polite,
no longer pretending
that you were anything more
than a prisoner.

About this poem

How often does it happen? A habit. A crutch, A lover. A friend. An addiction, so sweet at first, slowly morphs into a jailor. And then what?

Tom

2 comments

  1. I was *just* talking about this with someone today…how sometimes you endure hardship for so long, you become accustomed to it, and you don’t even realize how far you are from living, or what it would look like outside those ropes. Always in my head, Tom. 🙂

Leave a reply to Tom Atkins Cancel reply