Narcissia

I see you now incandescent in the viral spiral
Absorbed in your soaring heresy of secrets.
Child-meek you seek a sympathy
And like a lioness are enraged
At the approach of truth.
Accelerating toward the speed of light
Your being masses and masses gathering everything
Into its destination.

You dream like an empress of shells and boxes
Knighting strangers and rivals with dangerous titles.
We stand terrified before the bold vacuity.
Peddler of hope and the dope of rhetoric,
I am frightened by your innocence of this,
Gasp before the mesmeric voice,
Struggle against the marvellous pull and thrall
Toward the fall of empire.

And then the easiness of a soothing respite settles
Like the gentle ebbing of a moonlit tide;
Room on the beach to stretch and breath
And move about and be at ease
And think of love and longing and the agency of dreams
And in incautious moments
Gaze toward the panoramic sparkling sands
Like the sagest monk drunk on silence and moonlight
And yet everywhere within the lens: shells.
And in the distance
Fast approaching like a sea of moons:
The gathering tide.


© Rhett Talley