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  Mar 2016 S S
Daniel Ospina
Fountain of youth runs in his veins,
The man who lives in Sycamore Keep.
His circadian clock had come to a halt,
Rather than rejoice, he sullenly weeps.
You would think that immortality is
The pinnacle of human existence,
All the time in the world and not a
Single malady to be of any resistance.
Yet there he sulks, the ageless man,
Cauterized by the turn of each century,
As loved ones breathe their last and
Become a parcel of his fractured memory.
But that is just the shell of his woes,
For even with all knowledge amassed,
He’s utterly aghast with the state of the
World unwilling to learn from the past.
Every crook and cranny explored,
Every experience well savored,
Now monotony for millennia to come,
His longing to live has ebbed and wavered.  
I was told by the man of Sycamore Keep
That immortality is a curse so alluring.
Indeed, a hundred cultivated years is
Much better than hollow eons securing.
But sir, think of all the riches you’ve accrued
And mastery of all science and philosophies.
Who wouldn’t want to have the time to mark
The world and purge it from all its atrocities.
Say no more, interrupted the ageless man,
I applaud your idealism and optimistic delusion,
But you’re missing one essential element --
Even as immortals, we’d still be only human.
And to be human, is to be fallible. Let’s just say
That immortal fallibility will engender no good.
It'd be best to truncate our lifespan for the
Sake of our survival, yes truncate we should.  
And that’s all I heard from the man of Sycamore Keep,
Who went on his way to his millennial weep.
S S Mar 2016
Twirling in my fingers
Spins a pen so black
The ink inside
Tries to hide
The rainbow in its pack.

Charcoal placed on ivory
Etchings tumble out
These words born
Freely adorn
Colored garlands and shout:

Look beyond this mere form
Beyond the letters scrawled
Make it live
Art that gives
Birth to entities tall

Each mark harbours a prism
Words filled with endless shades
A window to
Look inside you
Painted canvas that prose laid.
Poetry is a prism that fractionates the written word onto infinite meaning.
S S Mar 2016
I saw her again today
Blankly staring ahead.
Hair blowing,
Roots showing,
Her eyes glazed, a puzzle of red.

I wonder what thoughts run
Behind that glassy look.
Try to guess,
With no success,
Judge her cover to know her book.

Is she musing about love
Warm home that travels with him.
Gushing thoughts,
Of happy sorts,
Eyes red thank life full to the brim.

Is she mourning a loss
Of freedom, hope or more.
Twisted fate,
Brings unasked date,
Eyes red farewell her dreams in store.

Is she running through task list
New box added on refresh.
One more tick,
Oh so slick,
Eyes red betray unrested flesh.

Is she setting out in search
Of new life, new mind, new soul.
Endless hunt,
Brave new stunt,
Eyes red find lost piece from her whole.

I take one last look at her
Into my mirror on bathroom shelf.
My red eyes,
Full of lies,
I am a stranger to my self.
S S Feb 2016
New being
Brought home by stork
Canvas unmarked so pure
Asks the world to gently unfold
Waiting.

Toddler
Reaching pushing
Trips over new unknowns
Asks the world to remain unchanged
Watching.

Teenage
Listless searching
Bursts out of skin so taut
Asks the world to gather tempo
Wanting.

Mid-life
Collects crises
Gathers notches on belt
Asks the world what it's all about
Waning.

Old age
Reminiscence
Fears loss within and out
Asks the world to remember him
At End.

New being,
Reaching pushing,
Bursts out of skin so taut,
Asks the world what it's all about,
At End?
Chinquain syllables: 2,4,6,8,2.
Last stanza made up of first five verses.
S S Feb 2016
Slowly I step away from the gate,
Gait unsteady, I stop and I wait
Weight of the moment sees me in a daze
Days ahead blur into a chilling haze.

She whispers her last from upon the kerb
Curb my fear, this I know I need to hear
Here and now is my only chance at peace
Piece together what happened to make this cease.

She said that I made her my fragile dear,
Deer caught in headlights, my ******,
Heroine to be rescued from all mist,
Missed the chance to know this girl I kissed.

She was done being made to feel weak,
Week after week she assembled her fort,
Fought all urge to let this issue slide by.
Bye, she murmured, I am now ready to fly.

So this is the sad end to my tale,
Tail tucked in between my legs I
Eye her walk away into the night
Knight I am no more, fade to white.
My first attempt at a homophone loop. Eep.
S S Feb 2016
Honestly, I don't know what you're on about.
I watch your mouth move as though in a race.
I hear the words, nod an assent or two,
Then work out how to arrange my face.

Sixteen years on, I can bet my life
It's any of issues one to five
Perhaps disguised as new and bold
But countless times we've jived this jive.

It's either mother/sister/father in law
You don't spend enough time with me
I washed up last, it's your turn now
Money just doesn't grow on trees.

That's four, oh wait and last not least
It's the cherry atop our well known list:
Are you happy in our life right now,
If I was gone of sudden would I be missed?

Interrupted of course by the offspring two
Never a chance to talk about
The things that make us fight and kiss
Talking in code that's fraught with doubt.

Your voice sinks further from my conscious realm
Where the blurry words blur and blur some more
And somehow we arrive at this day's end
As a melody stuck on a repeating score.

I crawl to bed a respectful time after you
Touch your arm, cold, betrayed by sheet
I encircle your chest as it fills and droops
The familiar curve of your back I meet.

I know not what all of this is finally about
And that 'morrow brings with it new words ablur
The only thing I know is about you, my love
Without you I would not want tomorrow to occur.
S S Feb 2016
Wounded wings of a bird of prey
Perched atop its nesting place
Flightless fear of the mighty proud
Does not betray its fearsome face.

Savage shrieks sustain from gritty beak
Lest the lowly prey start to suspect
The terror hidden by beady stare
Knows the wingless cannot life protect.

High up on tree top, talons grip tight
But to beseech is not to be a beast
The power owned by the bird of prey
Is to hover aloft its menial feast.

But treebound talons cannot the brute sustain
So tucking pride away it pleads for aid
The asymptotes connect but all too late
Unheard echoes of its last calls fade.

Glassy eyed, this mighty bird it falls
From once its coveted place of rest
That helpless wingless bird of prey
Lies now amidst common prey and pest.
Pride goeth before the fall.
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