Essence of Antoku

Wilted, stilted body of a may fly

lays slain by tilted, quilted blind spot in my eye

Reminded of myopia, my ocular sighs

smear smoke over hope becoming bedraggled with lies

 

I ruggedly, raggedly rise towards pinnacle

of a pedestal peppered with the pettiest principles

that perpetuate pride and it’s sinful, cynical sentinels

who vengefully vented when I thought that I meant it all

 

Never meant to fall into habits appalling

to a potentially premium polymathic calling

This summer’s sabbatical stalling

dramatic, biographical overhauling

of a small thing or two to do

with life and land born into

 

Poor interview techniques speak for themselves

but when the bell rings brightly in the most hellish of hells

in the bellies of beasts

in the deepest of wells

it compels us not to peak but to excel ourselves

 

Exhale and delve into traditions upheld

until what’s left of our breath is bereft of our shells

and we sink still searching beneath the sea and its swells

to live on in the sailor and the tales he tells