Ladders and Snakes

What have I done with my one life and all the time it takes
Up the ladders of alcohol and down depression’s snakes
I’ve met too many predators and bought too many fakes
I had too many choices and made some bad mistakes
Up the ladders of ecstasy and down delusion’s snakes
Why does a simple scene in life involve so many takes
Whatever machinery’s in the mind it’s modern and it breaks
Up the ladders of company and down the lonely snakes
What does self-denial say except it’s no great shakes
Up the ladders of fantasy till disillusion wakes
Spring brings a resurrection yes but autumn falls in flakes
Down the rivers of self-reproach to drown in sorrow’s lakes
And when you finally finish in the grip of age’s aches
The graveyard is a ladder down and worms are hungry snakes
With their own thirst for living which living never slakes