Stark as Thunder

 
 
All ends plunge to a desperate depth
While at same time building
Upon themselves to tower over us.

. . . and so, across this quiet plain unrippled
by meandering creatures, unspooked by
restless winds, he saw that mammoth structure,
greying bricks heaped near to the heavens.
He wanted to move closer, unhinge its heavy doors,
enter its cavernous heart, climb to whatever
waited at its peak. He did not.
He could not . . .

Everything ends
Even the most inscrutable puzzle.
Walk a maze until you believe
With robust certainty that
You are hopelessly lost.
Eventually it will expel you
Without a moment’s hesitancy.

” . . . I am not ready for it to end,” he said through fear,
knowing a beginning waited beyond, “Let me only see
what will not fail.” And so, he turned away
from that towering edifice toward the tiniest thing
within sight. He seized his eyes to a deep speck
on the horizon and traveled long in its direction
until he reached the open, uncrossable ocean.

“It is a beautiful thing to watch the forever ebb
and flow,” he remarked over the gurgling splash
of the breaking waves after an unknowable
amount of time had passed, “But why does the sight
fill me with despair?” . . .

He was there,
Stood on that desolate shore,
A monument to nothing
But himself.