nevermore
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an eagle …
snake clutched in talons
flew across the sun and cast its
shadow beachward
like a dark arrow … loosened
I watched it soar and disappear into the
fingery brume of the high fells
as a cold breath of autumn slapped my
face, seeping bones …
as a heartsick lad, I had strode these
shores a thousand times
and a thousand more in dreams hence
but never with such a burden as now …
the world’s weight, my yoke -
fitting that it should turn
upon this very spot,
where I’d lived and loved and languished
the foamy lace to a savage, beautied brine …
as the sun dipped the reach, cherry red
a crimson moon arose, opposing
their two bloody eyes
grave witness to the end of man
and the redemption of Zion …
but redemption begs sacrifice
and precious, this altar
so many millennia of progress and
brilliance and turmoil
we lambs of sentience and greed -
the very epitome of what
any such wondrous orb should spin for
and yet we had lost all
to the enemy of least conscience …
ourselves.
but it was that defeat that defined us
that proved our worth
for we silly, stupid, passionate fronds of flesh
are the envy of gods
they, in all their majesty and omnipotence,
can never know the true value of
existence
or the sweetness of a breath
or the sentiment borne by a tear
or the tenderness of the cheek it stains …
they’ll never look at the moon and feel its
pull on the tide of their coursings
they’ll never fear the beauty of darkness
or the naked truth of day
it is only mortality that gives everything it’s
worth and consequence -
only oblivion that gives life incomparable value …
so, as twilight falls about me,
let it also fall on mankind
let me be the final attestor to
man’s earthly dominion …
let these hallowed shores be stilled …
capture the wave-top coins of moonlight
and place them on
my eyes for the Boatman …
let my pyre be the warming light
to summon the morn
and let my ashes soar to the heavens
to grace the powerful, sacred,
indifferent wings of …
an eagle.
Copyright © October 9, 2024 Gregory Richard Barden
Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden | Year Posted 2024
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