The Artist’s Dilemma

She been dulled
Stupefied and lulled
A painful recognition
Of love confined

Her life defined
Critiques and hard lines
Shrines to inner conflict
Oft spoken in rhyme

Words to pry
Words to satisfy
Words to lie
Words to live by

Dredged from depravity
The page a consul
Her soul’s aspect
Judged

Her life fudged
An act
Hiding truths
Expressed in ink

The artist’s dilemma
To flow or stow
To create or embody
To scratch with pen or knife

To be or not to be
That is the question
A modern problem
Shakespearean to common
Passed down without solution

She seeks absolution
A promise
A freedom
A satirical lyrical empirical miracle

Something
Anything
To break the cycle
To begin again

She comes full circle
Thoughts mulled over
Conclusions culled
Her love is dulled
And she’s confined

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This poem is from the book A Requiem For What Could Have Been: Poetry For The Broken