Bread Crumb Trail Poem by Janine Ecks

How many wads of crumpled paper
Have gone into that trash can in the corner of your kitchen
Twenty million words of pain
Delicately crafted verse of desire
Letters of longing, lifeblood as ink
Jettisoned with every idle daydream

Oh house of sorrow
House of delirium, heroin cut with madness
I open the door and try to ride off on the wind
But the once-airborne piece of me remains in that cage
Feathered, iridescent wings bound with iron chain
Immobilized eternal on your floor

Your walls remember me
How could they forget
After the stain of all my fears for near a year
They've taken on a shade of blackish green
And call the red thread of my passions
An amusing embellishment

Ornate, still, almost forgettable
Those bits and pieces of immortal soul
That only I can seem to see
Long, long before I found myself
That garbage can in the corner of your kitchen
Found me