Quicksand

I’m sinking in quicksand that I never saw coming
Never thought to look down, given how fast I was running
Running to the next thing, away from the past
I lung through the jungle, and tread though the grass

When I first realized that I couldn’t move,
My feet became numb while the sand filled my shoes
I cursed myself harshly for being so careless
And I beat myself down for my lack of awareness

I swear to God, I tried my best to get out
It’s not like I enjoy being kicked while I’m down
Speaking of kicking, I can’t use my legs
Just throw me a rope, I plead and I beg

Dear God, I feel like a miserable waste
As the quicksand moves up to cover my waist
I struggle and strain to get out of this mess
As the quicksand ignores me and moves up to my chest

It’s a long way to hold your breath through the Allegheny Tunnel
And the backroads of Ohio start to look like a jungle
All I wanted was some peace of mind, to put it behind me
Instead of roaming the wildest woodlands so blindly

If you can’t find yourself in the distance between Virginia and Michigan,
How the Hell do you ever hope to find yourself again?
I keep losing my mind through the land’s sacred highways
When I know it could just as easily be in my driveway

Driveway, drive away, be back where you started,
The seas collapsing on you just after they’ve parted
There’s not enough water in those mighty Great Lakes
To let me cast off my sins and forget my mistakes

And there wasn’t enough time in North Indiana
To find a way forward when I went back to Grand Haven
In a lakeside town where you keep feeling down
The worst part is no one would care if you weren’t around

So you rock back and forth, cursing the North,
Shutting yourself in to shut out the places you’ve been
Slamming your head against walls that have felt confining since you were small,
Leaving in the night because you couldn’t keep fighting

I’ve been fighting since I was young
The best part is cleaning the blood off your tongue
The worst part was biting it because no one would listen
It was safer to be silent than to give my enemies ammunition

And now, I try to get better, but it’s never enough
The more that I move, the more I feel stuck
I don’t know if I should surrender to the sand around my neck
Or if I should try to get out, when it has no effect

My mouth will be covered, and I will soon drown
I’ll be a fading memory from that lakeside town
I won’t see the sunsets I hoped I would see
Because that quicksand kept rising and got the best of me