A Paradox of Time
The sun, resplendent in its blazing might,
Burns fiercely o'er a barren, lifeless waste,
A desert dry and vast where earth is scorched
By searing radiation, deathly bright.
No sign of life but one lone phoenix flies,
Soaring precarious, close to burning disc.
In empty sky, it scans the world below,
The searching landscape, dry and desolate.
No motion stirs, no life its gaze can find,
Save shadow silhouette that swiftly moves
Across the sandy ground beneath its flight.
“Nothing,” the phoenix sighs, and banks to left,
Tilting its wing-tip skyward with a grace,
Its gaze still focused on the barren world.
No change it sees, the ashen earth remains,
No hint of life, nor trace of what once was.
In all directions, desolate and dry,
The dunes and crags stretch endlessly afar.
“Perhaps,” it mourns, “this place was always thus,
And will remain forevermore the same.”
A shriek it gives, as if to voice its woe,
But no one answers in the empty waste.
With wings outspread, it swiftly wheels around,
Descending light upon the highest crag.
The wind blows coarse through feathers dignified
As it regards the barren waste around.
No sound but noisy gales of shifting wind
Breaks through the solemn silence of the plain.
The phoenix stands alone, forgotten, lost,
The last bright ember in a sea of gray.
But as it mourns its solitary state,
A shadow moves far off upon the sands.
It creeps inexorably towards the crag,
The phoenix fixes gaze with pinpoint care.
A sliver dark expands and swallows all,
Till sun is darkened in the Western sky.
The phoenix marvels at the eclipse's grace,
Transfixed by Nature's grand display of power.
Its aloneness it forgets, suspended high
In wonder at this cosmic spectacle.
“What sign is this? What fate does this portend?”
The phoenix ponders, but no answer comes.
Meanwhile, a rain of blazing meteors falls,
Eerily timed with advent of eclipse.
But lost in rapture, phoenix heeds them not,
Stands motionless, absorbed in Nature's show.
A fiery torrent pockmarks all the earth,
The thundering storm pummels rock and sand.
But still the phoenix watches, undisturbed,
As flames consume the lifeless waste below.
Only the crag remains untouched by fire.
Atop the peak, the phoenix finds its fate,
In fiery bath of flames gives up its form.
The blaze transforms it, fire purges all,
And in the ashes nothing now remains.
The wasteland burns, a literal inferno,
And planet Earth now like the poet’s hell.
The flames reach high, the skies are set ablaze,
The moon shines brightly in the smoky haze.
The phoenix’ form resolves in fire’s grasp,
And as the flames subside, a figure stands,
A man emerges where the bird once perched.
In shock, the man surveys the barren scene,
But as he watches, life begins to bloom.
The sun grows softer, air becomes like dew,
The earth gives forth her fruits in lush delight.
From barren rock spring streams and limpid pools,
The simplest plants begin to sprout and thrive.
The creeping things take hold in humus soil,
The birds above now fill the trees with nests,
While beasts appear from nowhere in great herds.
The phoenix gone, the man stands all alone,
Transformed, bewildered, stunned by all he sees.
And then a bolt from heaven strikes the ground,
A column bright descends with thunder’s peal,
A dazzling blaze ignites the clearing pool.
The man, now phoenix, hurries to the light,
Drawn like a moth to flame, he cannot pause.
A figure bold emerges from the blaze,
Incandescent, like lightning held in flesh.
The man stands frozen, trembling in his awe,
A marvel bright of power and delight.
“What are you?” begs the man with quivering lips,
“What name is yours that brings such terror near?”
The being speaks, his voice like thousand floods:
“A name now given to your flesh and bones!
Gabriel you'll be called, your fate unfolds.
An avatar, reborn from phoenix’ flames.”
In radiant light, the phoenix finds his core,
A stream of visions floods his deepest mind.
He sees himself in ages yet to come,
Transformed to something beyond understanding,
A paradox that bends through time and space,
A mortal power meant to guide the world.
Thus, Gabriel stands tall, his mission clear:
To bring forth life to lands once barren and harsh,
A phoenix risen, now a godling bright,
Restoring earth beneath celestial skies.
Copyright ©
Ngoc Nguyen
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