Statues Buried In Mud

Statues Buried In Mud
© Surazeus
2026 01 18

We build our empire of contending states 
on grand revelation that liberty 
should be enjoyed by every dreaming soul 
born from the fertile womb of Mother Earth 
to share fruits of our labor in the fields 
while we ensure equal justice for all. 

Yet portraits of gods on museum walls 
display no delicate features in forms 
that mimic bodies humans animate, 
nor resemble statutes buried in mud 
by avalanche of fate which cracks stone walls 
that should pertain to code of paradise. 

Convinced the secret treasure, Jesus forged 
from meteor that almost cracked the Earth, 
is buried lost in wind-lashed field of snow, 
young girl travels halfway around the globe 
to walk the treeless waste land of deep hope 
where she finds nothing more than one shy deer. 

At thrilling conclusion of her vain quest 
she finds quaint haiku written in the snow 
by feet of dark-eyed Junco that describe 
how friends gather around warm glowing hearth 
and linger late in moonlight to share tales 
from their childhoods in Television Land. 

Amused that she misunderstood cruel joke 
she heard from Tengu in the mountain cave, 
young girl sails Argos east across the sea 
to ask the bearded men beside the lake 
how we can trust intuition of signs 
based on clever twist of dire prophecies. 

Then just as she stands on the frozen hill 
to watch the train glide slowly with the sun, 
she feels how cherished daughters of our hearts 
are incarnations of the ancient Earth, 
so she cries out to beauty of the light 
despite how truth is always in our eyes. 

Because the ocean bares sharp teeth of ice 
we ask if mothers always know the way, 
appalled by bitter anguish of soul birth 
when seeds break open with demonic faith 
that sucks sweet sorrow of the endless rain 
each hour we are reborn to thrive and die. 

Beneath the oak that blooms on river shore, 
her father planted at hour of her birth, 
Persephone measures deliberate wind 
as breath transformed from ravens into words 
which teach us how to taste cerulean fruit 
because we know that all great empires fall.