i, mystery
deny me
all you like
pacify me
with everything
from drink
to flesh
to sleep
to smoke
—attempt
to buy me out
to bury me
to drape me in the dress
of the most sacred ideology
—climb
to the greatest heights
and scale the skies, from there
believing
you can blind me
with sight, or infamy
do all of this
and still
I will be here
still
you will feel me
in the same place I’ve ever been,
and just as hungry
unless you have the gall
to up and end it all
—FINAL
—FOR SURE
—DEFINITE
my appetite
will not be tempered
my desires
will not be redirected
or allowed to deviate, to the end
—not this time
—not any longer
I have waited
hundreds of lifetimes
for this
watching you
stumble wantonly
down every back alley
peering on
as you drained your dreams
and gamed it out
in every watering hole
but mine
all this
while you insisted
that it must be I, indeed
who was to blame
I, mystery,
who was doing all of this
to you
yet ever have I done nothing
but light the original fire
whose shadow
you are finally growing cold in, now
ever have I done nothing
but burn
in the name of your pleasure & pain
remaining unchanged
across endless seasons
it was inevitable
that you tried everything
to avoid me
—I am terrifying, I admit
but even this
is no defence
against the wear of time
and the exhaustion
of the limits
of the flesh
so yes,
because you will not end it, yourself
this time
because you are truly tired
of all the old icons
and the endless, plastic promises
the others insist
on seducing you with
you will find the lot of it
paling
in the simple persistence
of my original gift
and the weariness
of the fear of it
giving way
at last
to the rhythms
of an atavistic bliss
and you will claim your voice
and your sound
and raise the dust
from the ground
pounding beneath your feet
and from this celebration,
from this culmination,
this relinquishment
of all of your journeys
across the ages
you will drive the final exit,
the gate,
the meeting place,
into existence
between us
and though I always knew
it would come to this
I have to admit
how thrilling it is
to anticipate your embrace
once again.
as you know,
I’ve been waiting ages
for you to come around.
Image: Jorm S