FESTIVE SOLITUDE

Heaven’s eye, rippling across a sea of red stars,

Burning clear, aflame, an intense agate sun;

Alone, Mercury whispers, brokering an agreement;

Watching, watching—as the light beams fade,

In solitude, in silence; thinned into the backdrop of space.

And the Earth says:

 “Those stars, amongst the tattered streaks of heaven;

 Our sun, straining to breathe in the timeworn air;

 Don’t we live for euphoria? Again and again,

 We chase a dream that disintegrates to ash,

 We celebrate, we pray, we laugh, we cry;

 Yet our festivities, so joyful, still burn from its place,

 dispersing into tiny, uncountable, brief little things

   that bury into the sand below,

    that bury into the gorge below,

     that bury into the chasm of one’s, zeroes—

 —maw open; within our Body under the gaze of God—

 —we little things, of an end to the heat we wish,

 as we bear witness to an End that holds no reply.

 “And we, the firebugs, the ones that chase after light,

 the useless, dreary, fickle little things;

   Us, the tiny bugs,

   alone in our world,

   in a boxed room of lies we worship and idolize—

we dream one dream of reaching the stars,

to carve out our loneliness, to wave our achievements—

—a festival of solitude. A festival of Us.”

Only silence remains.

Replying, Mercury whispers to the firebugs below:

 “the heat of heaven roars

 but our pinpricks of light

 will never be enough for you

 will never be enough to sate.

 your victories are joyless

 your life defines the momentary

 in pale flickers of fire

 your meaning disappears.

 you deserve to live unanswered

 and leave no trails in history

 nothing will be enough

 to satisfy the hole that gapes—

 to you, this is everything.

 to us, a product of time.

 and since nothing will ever matter,

 nothing will ever change.”

…

The eye of heaven falls shut, skies torn asunder.

Still, the world heaves its breath, ready to burn again.

~ JAN 2024