Invisible Chains; a poem

Dawn breaks, the world pulses
to life around me as I falter,
a familiar rhythm, now a distant hum,
slipping through my fingers like water.

And I wrestle, with invisible chains,
this body was once a vessel of strength,
now simple pursuits leave me weak and scathed;
fortress of torment.

Some call us warriors, but we’ve been enlisted
to fight battles unseen from the confines of flesh.
Inside my chest there is a lotus, persistent-
-ly reaching for light from muddy depths.