Muddy Water Poem by Shalyn Stachmus

Follow the footsteps; see where they lead.
Trace the pattern that's splashed on your knees.
Face the rancid and pernicious side.
What are your chances?
Just roll the dice.

Determined comfort fails and I fall.
Slipping through shadows cast on the wall,
I ask when silence can be my home.
What time is it now?
I still don't know.

Only meek magpies play careful games,
For demons always steal from the sane.
Hell's freezing; the devil's still alive.
What is the reason?
Don't you dare cry.

Find the ones who are wasted and down.
They are the reason filth is allowed.
Without good and bad, we'd all be lost.
What is this strange game?
And what's the cost?

Follow the traces; they're still the same.
If you're averted, the path can wait.
Just go astray awhile, if you must.
What now, have you learned?
I've learned to trust.