I climbed down
from vaunted places,
high enough
to touch the whole world
in a day,
perceive it
in an hour,
consider
and pass judgement upon it,
grow tired
and ultimately neglect it.
I watched it turn,
but grew weary of its revolutions
and I longed to walk again
amongst its oceans,
bathe in its pools,
walk
through its many walled gardens.
But I,
I had been imagined wrong.
I had been dreamed up
deformed
and half insane.
Divided my right
from my left;
my hemispheres
once conjoined,
now estranged.
Ascended in exile.
I wound down my afflictions
and drank moonlight,
until my skin glowed
and by scars receded.
I was called
and did not answer,
for the universe had confused me.
My one identity,
lost in a roster
of billions.
There was no interchange.
It was never cross-compatible.
I had ascended
because of my differences;
cast out
and even those things that made me,
they took,
and called them “Insufficient”.
So when I climbed down
from my place high up,
my first steps were tentative.
My heart yearned,
but my mind screamed
that the world
could not be trusted.
I almost didn’t come,
but now,
here I stand;
where the oceans meet the beaches
and I feel the sand
beneath my feet
and feel the cool, salt breeze
blows in from a distance.
Behind me,
a roaring fire
casts playful shadows
and there is laughter,
because there is still good
in the world.
I stare,
off into the endless stars,
that look so different
from this side.
Things come together here,
like they can nowhere else.
A place of convergence,
a place of mystery.
Where every spark
flies into the night sky
and yearns to be a star
and every star
wants to stand by the ocean,
listening to the wind,
watching the waves,
in the company of laughter.
HG – 2018
