Bright Elf Shaman

Bright Elf Shaman
© Surazeus
2024 05 17

Evading calm terror of tasteless words 
fished from foul pond of alligator bones, 
I walk country road of telephone poles 
that string my soul along with aching hope 
stolen from alphabet wings of sad birds 
because the evening sky is silver bright. 

Something she said in the kitchen last year 
as she was pressing dough of apple pies 
still haunts me with its subtle purity 
filling a cracked glass with almost-sour milk 
despite regretful thoughts I never speak 
about wanting to live in prairie grass. 

Each time the white telephone on the wall 
alarms her calm demeanor with bad news, 
my grandmother smiles to hide bleak despair 
that the blind man in the forest of bones 
chases the sparrow to the Promised Land 
till the pair of scissors falls from her hand. 

We always knew the horse with seven eyes 
could win the long race at the county fair 
but no one expected he would escape 
and search for his mother in windy hills 
though I wait for thirty years in the door 
to watch the sunset ignore unpaid bills. 

Leaving crowded cities of the east coast, 
my ancestors who escaped Babylon 
wrote no diaries about their journey west, 
yet still I hear sad creak of turning wheels 
in timeless wind across the new-named hills 
where I pretend I live in Avalon. 

Till I was forty-two I could not read 
history written in star-map of my name 
so when I found the ancient Holy Grail 
I saw glowing in jeweled runes of truth 
true secret name of my immortal soul 
which I wear now as laurel wreath of faith. 

These names that reveal state of my soul are 
Surazeus from Asura and Zeus, 
Astarius from First Mother Ishtar, 
Jesuvius from Jehovah and Jove, 
and Gothinus from Odin Wanderer, 
for I am the bard in the sea-mountain cave. 

As Albert Simon I am bright elf shaman 
who tends the sacred flame of Zoroaster 
in the watch tower on the pyramid 
to guard lush apple trees of paradise 
where children play along the sparkling stream 
that flows down from the mountain to the sea.