The Alchemist's Tale
Prologue
Of the alchemist’s physique I expound upon thee
A white feathered cap wore he jauntily, cocked to a side.
His sight like a moles’, aided by technology.
Shoulders broad with features fair
Emerald eyes he had with a lion’s flaming hair.
Also a nose of kingly report, a boon his father shared.
Not quite right, a bit unsure, his mannerisms all.
Possessed by him a gimp right leg, on which he caught every fall.
And always, verily, carried he within a secret pouch
That which laid great Sophocles
Down prone upon his Grecian couch.
Around the night fire all the host gathered
He a hair’s distance from me
I asked if perhaps he would share a short story
To liven our spirits a bit.
He replied with a grin that screamed of pure sin
“Why certainly. What’ll it be?”
Tale
“The properties of darkness, frightful though they are,
Nevertheless intrigue me with their endless repertoire.
When I go to bed at night and settle in my nest,
The voices of the night ring out and keep from my rest.
I smile when I hear the house, so calm in light of day
Creak and moan and whine and harp
About her slow decay.
The stairwell squeals! My heart races.
Could it be a thief?
Or could it be that meddlesome fairy, come to steal my teeth?
A cough blasts forth, the well-known hack
Of a man who's half asleep
Issued forth from my dad on his way to midnight tea.
And perhaps this night, if the sentry lights
Outside on my street would wane
I might hear in my heart, the stars' symphony
And observe a celestial cabaret.
But alas, only the moon enters my room
To dance upon the wall.
Creating for me a puppet show
Of shadows tiny and tall
A shadow is a thing that mystifies me.
Of what can it possibly be made?
Like oil on water it can slide over darkness
Yet be present at the high-noon parade
(I think it is nothing but a ghost of yourself
Endlessly playing charades.)
Oh, look at that! Here come the shirts
Accompanied by the pants.
By day inert
By night alert!
Performing a lively dance
Their twirling and whirling is swirling and blurring
I cannot avert my eyes.
But lucky for me you can't get dizzy
When you're falling up into the sky
Ah! At last it fills my ears!
That lovely melody.
A harmony that's been brewing for
A hundred million years.
And with my hand I reach up high
To pluck a diamond from the sky
Carefully I wrap it in my shadowy cape
Lest it should fall to earth and break”
Copyright © Danny Galicki | Year Posted 2009
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