a spiral

It is a spiral

Like the one that goes

Round and round and round

And once again around,

Tightening its smoky hands around

Your neck.

Your neck gets smaller

Smaller and smaller and smaller

It is unlike the flicker of a candle

Fickle and faint once the wax melts.

It is like being stuck in a box

Stuck and stuck and stuck

With no freedom to dream

And no space to exhale

In a tiny box

A box of your own

A very special box,

That one box that will

Cease to ease

This anxiety

That started the spiral