What must I do
to escape being you?
The lies I hold true because
you once told them, and oh,
how you sold them! A bill of
ill goods, black to the core: I
ate my fill and came back for more.
I put them in baskets set aside for
the winter, a wine so malign it
betrays its own vintner. And when
my eyes opened and witnessed
new light, how desperate you were
to chain me to night. And how you
delight in making me squirm, in
stealing my pudding and feeding me worms.
You promise high heaven and then
slam the gate; make off with the key while
I stand and wait, cold and alone, trampled
by rain, a chill you’ve told me is for my own gain.
And yet, there you are, happy and warm,
inside with your cocoa, while I drown in the storm…
Toad's Great Adventure 
Good one, Vance, really good! So real, so yummy, not because its sweet, obviously, but due to its relativity to many of us who follow your blog.
Unfortunately, the title reminds me of “By and by, oh when the morning comes. When the saints of old are gathered home. We will tell the story of how we overcome. We will understand it better by and by!”
Thank you for sharing your love of rhythm and rhyme.
Actually, C, that’s where I took the title from, oddly enough. Good to know somebody got it. :0)
This is what happens when you’re the son of a lifelong Baptist music minister…
Oh and let us not forget “will the circle be unbroken, by and by, Lord, by and by.”
Haha, that song gets stuck in my head. Thanks C. 😛
Took me down memory lane. Reminded me of ‘someone’ I once ‘knew’. Powerful piece.
What a very familiar and familial feeling.
Indeed.
“a wine so malign it betrays its own vintner” what a fabulous line
Thanks!