(135) July 8, 2010: A Story In Verse, Part 4: Over The Chasm

A Story In Verse, Part 4: OVER THE CHASM

Awakening from dreams that have never been dreamed,
The scorch of the day pooling sweat in my eyes,
I staggered up faint and through razors I screamed,
My throat full of froth and all clotted with flies;
A vulture had landed to greet my demise.

Behind me the crevice, abyssmal and still,
The blast of the tempest expunged and serene;
So eerie the hush, my voice echoed shrill—
A child exhausted with fear inbetween
A bottomless pit and an eating machine.

I looked to the left and I looked to the right,
Behind me the chasm, before me the bird;
I wished for a moment I'd died in the night.
Which way should I run, each way unpreferred?
And then came the answer, completely absurd.


I asked the great vulture to give me a ride,
To carry me over the pit of remorse.
He answered me, "Sir, I would do so with pride."
And lifted his head growing large as a horse,
With Pegasus wings of incredible force.

"Climb up if you're willing." He said as he bowed,
His two giant legs kneeing down in the dust.
And tipping a wing like a stair he allowed
My tottering legs to step up and adjust
On his featherless neck I had chosen to trust.

"I'll carry you over, but don't you look down.
One look and you’re screaming—a song decomposed.
You’ll fall in the noise till you pray for the sound,
The drum-beating rhythm your heart has composed,
The sound of sweet silence embraced and enclosed.”

D. Edgar Lamp

www.TheDailyPoem.org
Quintain Stanza