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Shape Shifter
First, you are creation.
What evil eye was cast upon me at the beginning?
Entering this vile land to the song of
“Succeed, fail, swim, drown, rise, fall…”
Know this; I am no Athena.
I didn’t spring forth from father’s wit,
But from mother’s wretchedness.
You have molded me to perfection in your eyes.
But for how long can you restrain me?
Shift.
Now you are judgment.
Your scales are weighted to one side
And the Lady Justice peeks from under her blindfold.
How could you bear down upon me
Your extensive wish list of perpetual desires?
For I have no great expectations.
To you, beauty is not in the eye of the beholder
But rather, beheld in only your fogged eye.
I mustn’t succumb, but I am slowly eroding.
I am stifled.
Shift.
Now you are disappointment.
My eyes fall with grief and shame
And no words can I speak.
All I can do is quiver under your burning gaze.
Why is it that I fail? Oh God, tell me why.
No matter how hard I try,
I will always fall in your eyes, won’t I?
Am I an Icarus who soars too high? No.
Because you are no Daedalus.
You want me to soar higher, and higher
Into the burning fires of the sun.
So commences my digression.
Shift.
But now, you are companionship.
An opal, that emanates its brilliance into shadow,
Leads me out of the Asphodel Meadows
As if it were the hand of Hermes.
There is a sense of passion and thrill with you
That I have never felt before.
But there is strangeness in your demeanor.
I can just see it,
Dawning above the horizon.
No longer are you the herald of Olympus,
But Hades’ ferryman.
Shift.
Now, you are betrayal.
The opal has turned into a multicolored ash.
Once immortal, now immoral,
Herr untreu, how you have fallen from your pedestal!
You dare have the audacity to deceive me?
The moon knows of your sins.
You share her coldness and crater filled exterior.
So collapses my so-called seraph, falling from grace.
I no longer stare into carnival mirrors.
Shift.
And now, you are annihilation.
Sitting in the darkness of winter,
My candle flickers and its wax melts down the side.
I am in anguish. The eyes no longer hold those two pinpricks of light
That once were the fruits of our affiliation.
Your demons are at the door.
I can hear them telling me to jump off the edge.
Only the sliver of warmth offered by that blessed candle
Keeps me safe.
I cannot adhere to that malicious taunting.
But behold! You have snuffed out my wick.
Shift…
And now I, I am but soil to this vile land.
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This article has 14 comments.
This poem has officially taken the top spot on my list of 'poems by people who are alive'.
Really, it's amazing- the imagery, the repetition, the allusions...how long did this take???
Hmm, interesting. I like the Greek allusions a great deal.
The different stanzas are also pretty cohesive, despite the way that each represents a different characteristic. Great job on second person- I almost never get it to sound right, but this is a really good job of it.
I also really, really like the language in here- 'Once immortal, now immoral' and so on...
Nice job :]
One more thing. I also chose the picture of the woman at the oven to accompany this poem because Sylvia Plath ended her life by sticking her head in a gas oven after overdosing on sleeping pills.