Stalemate

This game is now at my opponent’s stare,
I’m running out of ideas of how not to be left feeling so obsolete.
Pushing to pull,
Falling to stand.
Can’t you hear me screaming?
I’m losing my voice on this frontline.
This tug-of-war is pulling me down,
I can’t win this war when distracted by battles.
Brother against brother,
Me against me.
This empty vessel can’t get to shore,
Not without an anchor of hope.
My dreams are spoiling in my veins,
My intentions are mutating under my skin.
Held at a stand still,
Why do you even reach for me?
You’ll come to realize I’ll bend until you break.
The advice I feed is the kind I can’t swallow,
The kind that keeps you hungry for more.
Embodied in a pit of temporary solace,
I’ll ignore your pleads of concern.
This dry season is just right for failure to set fire.
All eyes are on me and I forgot my lines...
I recall being a spectator,
Being safe on the sidelines.
But time is lingering and this detour was only an ambush.
Now I’m sinking in my own footsteps,
And I’m not coming up for air.
The faded places you see in me are from where I carried us the extra mile.
I’ll trace with chalk right where I fell,
Just help me pick up the pieces from the choices I’ve made.
Let me regain my scarecrow composure,
I need to finish what I started.
I want you to help me stop from falling apart,
Spill me and try to separate the cure from the hurt.
Clawing, searching, tearing, wrecking,
These walls are starting to talk and they’re closing in on me.
Regret, revenge, remorse, reason,
Could you remind me of what we’re searching for in these piles of ashes?
See my stains?
My inside is showing through.
These walls are bleeding through.
Don’t leave me so fragile and desperate,
Don’t leave me stranded in my ailment; my infatuation.
Cornered by all this chaos,
Caught somewhere between defeating collisions and driving impulses.
Your haunting whisper is calling me to break through...
Always this routine is repeating carelessly before my stare.
But now it’s <i>my</i> turn to make a stand and reveal my strategy.