Castles Built Of Sand

Castles Built Of Sand
© Surazeus
2024 08 27

My wing-chained feet are searching for the Earth 
so I can find the people I love most, 
but when I ask the ancient butterfly 
she tells me how rivers flow in reverse, 
now empty of grace, to comprehend thirst, 
though my soul levitates with silent breath. 

Stepping down from high Glow Cloud of the mind, 
I map strange territory of the night, 
intent on condensing time through the word 
tangled with desires we dare not express 
with respect to contentment of the field 
from which our children spring on hopeful wings. 

Stricken with grief for strangers who are killed 
in terrible accidents or cruel war, 
I breathe light of the Glow Cloud who decides 
to unpeel orange of elemental truth 
that makes me drunk when I consume its why 
till you find my name written in the sky. 

Hanged in the oak tree of rotating fate 
by the king who thinks he controls the world, 
I forgive my ancestors for the pain 
they cause the people whose homes they destroy 
in our thousand-year conquest of despair 
when I inherit castles built of sand. 

Eager to accept anguish of the world, 
I toss bird of my heart up to the sky 
so she brings weird riddle of the Glow Cloud 
that reveals secret of the eyeless god 
who teaches me how to find songs in stone 
smoothed by ten millions years of water flow. 

Plucking taut strings on lyre of Mercury, 
that vibrate with pure music of the spheres, 
I sing strange story of humanity 
preserved in hibiscus flower of faith 
when the river goddess appears on shore 
and gives war refugees ripe pears to eat. 

Humble acolyte of the heron seer, 
who splits my adamant heart with calm love, 
carves arcane riddles of philosophy 
on bones of my arms to calculate way 
we need to go on road of everywhere 
to understand precepts of morning wind. 

Wearing white dress of her essential grief, 
woven from scarlet threads of failed romance, 
daughter of the river with book of fate 
performs in temple of the fractured mirror 
her role in global pageant of rebirth 
that we attend in castles built of sand.