Because Life Is Pain

Because Life Is Pain
© Surazeus
2024 09 09

Though pain ofttimes seems to cripple my heart, 
I recite what Zarathustra once taught me, 
that what does not kill me will make me stronger, 
because life is pain that fuels my resolve 
to savor searing pleasure of existence, 
for I will feel nothing after I die. 

Stumbling down the signless road of despair, 
past people suffering disease, age, and death, 
I fall exhausted under the fig tree 
and laugh with bitter agony of faith 
at how unfair the world is to most people 
who struggle to survive while some are rich. 

If I, Sylphus, am son of Icarus, 
why have I no angel wings of desire 
to fly above crowded maze of this world 
so I can escape vast labyrinth of hunger 
where people fight each other over food 
thrown to them by rich men in palaces? 

Orpheus taught me how to play the lyre, 
but now that the Maenads ripped off his head, 
which sings dire prophecies on the wild sea, 
I wander lost and voiceless in this world, 
unable to sing anguish in my heart 
so I can evade tragic fate of death. 

Entering the chapel in search for hope 
that I could live free from pain of desire, 
I listen to the priest proclaim that Deus 
came down from high Heaven to dwell on Earth, 
spirit inhabiting material flesh, 
then rose from death and flew into the clouds. 

Striding with hope to meadow by the sea, 
I gaze at glowing clouds in the blue sky 
where my father Icarus once flew free, 
and call to Jupiter in Hall of Light 
through prayer for life in paradise of love 
after suffering bitter pain of abuse. 

Two wolves approach me from the swirling mist, 
the Wolf of Anger, and the Wolf of Joy, 
and since the one I feed will grow more strong 
I feed the dire Wolf of Joy with compassion 
as we run and laugh along River Styx, 
dancing in Elysium with honeybees. 

While strolling beneath the cliff by the sea 
I find broken wood frame shaped like swan wings, 
covered with tattered feathers of dead birds, 
strapped to bleached skeleton of Icarus, 
so I hold his broken skull in my hand 
and weep for my father who fell from Heaven.