Not courage

Danger signalled

as the thought coalesced,

clotting its stickiness

into the fixity

of scabby intention.

Not courage:

maybe untethers daring

lasso-ing wildly

out and down and up:

arrogance unfurled.

Then forgotten

but still somehow seeking

while hours stretched into days

into weeks and then

the camouflage of amnesia.

Then pain delivered:

unbounded, unended

imperative in its demands.

A slavery, an apprenticeship,

a baptism, a devotion performed.

Not courage:

maybe a caged terror

battering wildly

out and down and up:

existence unsprung.