Falling into a routine
It is safe; it is reliable
White teeth, cereal, caffeine
desk, refrigerator, bible.

It can also be dangerous
A killer, even
Repeated sentiments almost painless
Bandaids to clot the bleeding.

Your world is so small
You wonder what is out there
Waiting for a plot twist, a curve ball
A kidnapping, a love affair.

Musing only on your next move
Your life is a game of chess
Always working to improve
Inside, you struggle and then suppress

Feelings of being caught
In a cage of your own making
Better now take your mug shot
You grips the bars, your hands shaking.

This is not what you want
Always doing what is expected
To you, the future seems gaunt
Trapped in one, isolated perspective.

Way too young to not be living,
You keep wasting all of your time
With hardly anything to believe in,
You keep rehearsing your lines.

Foreshadowed are all of your experiences,
A movie where the world is your audience
You are great at keeping up appearances;
The critics will rave of your performance.

Your entire life is a blueprint
Straight to the good stuff, stray from the sin
You are on the fast track, a sprint
A race that you can never win

Your destinations are marked on a map
A straight and narrow road that will never curve
You will never reach them; your dreams but a trap
But that is not what you deserve.