The Image

Lovely, a sweet word

From the dark

Proceeds

Just a sound’s 

Clumsy

Compelled

Cluttered

clout

From a man cloaked:

Dissonant

So dawns

The Bright

Day!

There,

Smiling,

Darkness pretends.

As

Attempts rise,

And

Fall.

Because

It’s rare:

Understanding

Rarer even

To

Admit

It.

To admit

that only

Hemlock awaits

in place

Of the intimate,

To admit

The entire scene

Is

All the smiling

Is

False.

Thereby 

in lieu

Of truth,

The cloaked man

Cheers.

Since they will

Accept nothing

But Joy.

And proceeds, 

Once

accepted!

Back into the 

Invisible,

Unknown 

black

Of creeping

Inner Death.

Back

Into the 

Silence

Of quiet

And

Torturous

Mourning.

_________________

R.V. Smith: “The Image”, 02-08-23

© 2023 by Ryan Vincent Smith