Catherine Heath
May 2020
We're in uncharted territory:
Black delirium
Of twisting lines
(This last frontier
Of mine.)
More of me,
The feelings die--
Birds spread their wings;
Fly, by and by.
Miles away in Leiden,
Dallying in darkest dreams--
It seems that friends are
Endless wellsprings…
Could you tell,
I'm breaking?
Softly questioning
Those parts of you
Still questing--
Roam,
So far from home.
The vision perturbs me;
Ridden with symbols
(Written in light).
The flight of fancy hardens
In the sight of reason.
You and me--
Life's pirate crew;
True adventures
Through and through,
Indelicate cavorting
(And the thought of stopping,
Too.)
Decaying bones
Of dead men tell no tales,
And so I fail to see.
We know not where to go
With nought to show
For heartache.
Breaking slowly,
Minds are seeping
Through the cracks--
No turning back!
Attack of counting crows,
--Slow, now--
The eerie glow
Of night
And fright of scarecrows
Guarding empty fields,
And flight of angels
Who don't want to feel.
A real show of honour,
Riddled with guilt,
And sunken to the hilt
Of agony.
The flattery of crowds,
They’re bowing down,
(So proud--
Of meagre deeds)
Feeding from the lies
Of people, by and by.
Slowly, die--
Choke of air,
And, addled with despair,
We no longer care
For what was there.
We do it to ourselves,
Manufactured obsession--
Depression with melancholy
Adding in a dash of despair--
Railing against the cold,
Hard bars
(the cage we were born in)
Torn from old books
(worn with a look
Of surprise.)
The demise of sanity
(and affected vanity)
Of tortured souls,
Desperately
Seeking to be whole--
Told what to feel,
Mistaking mirrors
For what is real.
A deal with the devil,
An everyday evil
Mesmerises us--
And the dust of youth
Settles on old chairs,
The creaking stairs,
And party hats settle,
In the absence of shoes.
(Sticky rings of drinks
Show we were on the brink
Of something.)
Like the collapse of a dying star,
The bloom of youth is gone,
Sucked by vampires
Enthralled by beauty,
Seduced by parlour tricks.
Credit: Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
