The Mass

I wish that I had danced more

Back when I had the chance

Before the space was taken

By the mass and its advance

I wonder when it reaches me

Will I feel some relief

To be free of speculation

Faith and wonder, doubt, belief?

Will I still have regrets

For all the space that I Ignored

For wishing some away

For often feeling bored?

I used to have the feeling

That I was lost in an abyss

With an endless void around me

That I never thought I’d miss

I yearned to know the limits

To have a sense of flow

To feel that I was guided

By knowing where I couldn’t go

When I first met the mass

It looked like just a pebble

I kicked it to the side

I felt like such a rebel

The next time that I saw it

It came up to my knees

I reached to step across it

With a sense of slight unease

I began to mark its progress

Incrementally it grew

So slowly I forgot it

And then before I knew

It had risen to my waist

And I started feeling cautious

I could still do almost anything

But that almost made me nauseous

I felt like raging at it

Like smashing it somehow

Didn’t this space belong to me?

Did I have to share it now?

I tried to go about my day

But it crept into my thoughts

The unfairness haunted me

The mass seemed bothered not

So I decided to defeat it

I would have to grow with it

I started working out

And I started getting fit

When I could jump it easily

It felt like it was shrinking

It made me feel empowered

In my body and my thinking

That worked for quite a long time

Until the day I found

The mass outgrew my jumping

And sent me crashing to the ground

Then it became a wall

That I climbed until I couldn’t

I hoped that it would fall

While knowing that it wouldn’t

It got thicker and crept towards me

Inch by inch and day by day

Places I never thought about

Were soon eaten away

The space that once was mine

The mass seemed to want it more

In a way I guess that’s just

But it left me feeling sore

Why do masses exist?

What does that improve?

I thought about this a lot

As I had less room to move

The mass curled above me

And began to lower down

While advancing from the front

And from the sides and all around

It seemed to move much faster

As the space I had receded

So because I had no choice

I adjusted how much I needed

My movements became slower

And purpose filled instead

I moved much of my action

To the space inside my head

And it’s there I now reside

With each memory held dear

Of time when space was endless

And the mass was nowhere near