The Handcuff King
The Handcuff King
Escape pays for now:
suspend me upside down;
lock glass and steel;
fill fully;
water flowing over.
But if my escapes entertains,
understand that it is my existence.
I can handle building-size milk cans, Chinese water torture cells,
underwater crates and being buried alive.
Faced with flight or forced-fight,
the choice is easy
but understand I must force fight to flee:
no escape is without struggle.
But without escape or the opportunity of one,
I must hang on
and for how long?
Until I burst?
Or until I meet the next world:
the destiny of all that depart?
Explain to me the retreat available:
the extrication that sidesteps;
the evasion that slips the lock,
that springs a liberation.
No, you know no more than I about withdrawal.
You just know more about staying the course
and that won’t help much
when I need to leave, not the visage of death,
but death itself
and its closely shrouded, tightly bound design.
— Zumwalt (2011)
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