Confession of The Soothsayer

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Am I cursed like poor Orpheus

The son of Apollo

To just wander through life

Wasting my time

Cursed by the Three Crones 

To now write rhymes 

For just you

Who I silently 

Follow

Writing about love and sorrow

Whilst hiding alone in my hollow

 For only

Two invisible pennies

 Or dimes

 Because my Goddess 

 Divine has called

 In all my sins

To be tormented in every way 

Like Orpheus by the Maenads 

To play

 With this as punishment 

 For all my eternal crimes

 So every night

 Or at the break of morning 

I'm now doomed

To write

 Sometimes 

 In darkness 

 Sometimes in light

 Writing for my soul

 For my freedom 

 To really see

Unlocking old mysteries

Hidden deep within me 

To take back control

Using secretive newly found keys 

To mysterious occult doors

To traverse through 

Strange literature about inner kingdoms 

As I now speak to you

The silent viewers

Hiding cleverly amongst life's many moors

 Hidden in the vastness of 

 The Universe or

 Simply forgotten kin

 Or quiet fallen watchers 

 Parading silently

 Through my paradigms of words or simply perusing 

 In my inspired biosphere 

Am I but one of the many cursed 

Maybe like you 

Too

 To walk at the front like a brave foot soldier or simply following

Like a loyal Banner man 

Coerced beyond belief 

To seek continuous relief

Is that why I 

Perhaps like you 

Always now write

For sleep doesn't come easily to us two

Walking these precarious tightropes in morning or

At midnight

Filled with such unknown delicious and sometimes devilish 

Mysteries 

 Now cast me

 My two invisible pennies 

 Or dimes

By reading on with those eager eyes 

 As I serve my penance 

For all my own earthly crimes 

Urging you to absorb all my otherworldly experiences while you read

With unrestrained greed

For know

All our mistakes and crimes 

Are to be judged by our own

Head Watchman 

Our own judge and jury

When it's our time

No matter what you've got 

Or where you go 

And it’s why I now saunter through life

Perpetually seeking salvation to be un- dammed

Spreading inspiration through words

Painting tapestries created within carefully selected adjectives and verbs

Before I meet the primordial and eternal king

In the apex of all the universe 

Where used up stars fall like molten snow as his golden bells sing a soft melody 

As its eyes glows

Who the faint whispers tell me

Is called the Tall Man 

The ruler of all who are tainted to live within realms of jeopardy

Copyright John Duffy