We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

25.6.24

The Cage [Revision]


As I grow

the cage of time

shrinks. My years 

expand, filling it. 

More and more 

the walls close in.


The only window 

obscured by a blind,

my little view

is dim, shadowy,

larger vistas

unknown.


In youth, breathing deep

I spread like the branches 

of a cedar, yet 

with room to spare –

unaware then 

of restraining walls.


Present reality 

pierces: 

a sword.

Almost

I impale myself …

but, pausing


I glimpse

from the corner of my eye

a jester playing a flute.

His song hints 

that time 

might be fluid.


What if the walls 

are frail, soft

not fixed – if

stepping through 

I find that time 

is an ocean?



[Revised 11 June 2024.  Earlier draft posted 1 April 2024.]

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