Blessed be.
Velumbound.
This poignant transmission explores the universal arc of a romantic relationship.
Moving from idealistic bliss to catastrophic heartbreak and eventual emotional imprisonment.
The Fragility of Love:
The transmission contrasts the perceived strength of a romantic bond with how easily it can be destroyed by external pressures.
The Weight of Reality:
It illustrates how time, trauma, and suspicion inevitably erode youthful idealism.
Isolation and Depression:
The aftermath of heartbreak is depicted not just as sadness, but as an active, overwhelming dark environment that swallows the individual's identity.
The transmission follows a strict chronological three-act structure that mirrors the psychological stages of grief:
Act I:
The Idealistic Past: Radiant, sacred, and expansive.
"Garden of Eden", "unbeaten", "glint of Heaven"
Act II:
The Cataclysm: Sharp, sudden, and destructive. "Fate's razor-sharp... knife", "twin red balloons"
Act III:
The Aftermath: Heavy, stagnant, and collective. "Great darkness", "grey world", "Eternal stocks"
Biblical and Mythological Imagery
The transmission opens with an explicit reference to the Garden of Eden.
This frames the early relationship not just as happy, but as sinless, pure, and insulated from the real world.
The transition to a "New Kingdom" suggests a shared universe built entirely by the lovers.
The Balloon Metaphor
The central turning point uses the vivid imagery of "twin red balloons" to represent the couple's bond.
Red symbolises passion and love.
Balloons are fragile, filled with air, and easily popped or swept away.
The specific timeline ("In May" and "June the fourth") grounds the metaphorical narrative in a brutal, hyper-specific reality, signalling exactly when the relationship dissolved.
The speaker personifies destructive emotional forces to make them feel like active villains:
"Lady Mistrust" is introduced as a fatal interloper.
"Father Darkness" becomes a companion and authority figure in the speaker's depression, ruling over a "grey world."
The Chorus of the Damned
The repetition at the end acts as a Greek chorus.
The devils singing from the high rocks normalise the pain, reminding the speaker that heartbreak is a tax every human ("Our Brethren") must eventually pay.
The "eternal stocks" imply that heartbreak traps a person, forcing them into a public display of shared misery.
The transmission tried to capture how heartbreak reshapes reality.
The piece begins in a private, elevated paradise and ends in a crowded, subterranean purgatory.
The ultimate conclusion is bittersweet:
While the pain is agonising and dark, singing "the pain out" with the rest of humanity is the only transactional way to survive the price of love.
Shall we begin?
(A lone voice whispers)
We once walked unbeaten
Like unashamed lovers
In our mysterious
Garden of Eden
With soft smiles
Hands held tight
With a glint of Heaven
In our eyes
Every day and night
When we surveyed
Our New Kingdom
In ecstatic delight
But time and the heavy
Baggage of life
Stuck
Fates razor sharp
Ritualistic knife
Called
Lady Mistrust
Into the twin red balloons
Floating above us
That served as our
Unbreakable bond
Mine blew away
On June the fourth
And flew North
After yours
In May
Up to Somewhere
Where the
Starlings play
But
Oh how we had
Some fun
Though
Minds kept
Sharp
With emotions
Running hot
As our thoughts
Entwined
Underneath the midnight sun
So now with
Lips and voice
Unused
Mind
Bashful and bruised
I retreat
Into this
Great darkness
To stand
Sad and
Handcuffed
By the side of the other
Low men and women
In this new grey world
Swimming with
Father Darkness
In the shadows
Standing
Still
With nowhere to go
As his Devils sing
From high rocks
Their endless verse
Urging me to join
Their huge chorus line
"This is the price
Of love
Of our Brethren
When heartbreak
Consumes
Your soul
And holds
You in our
Eternal stocks
To line up
In the cold
And sing
To sing
The pain out.
This is the price
Of love
Of our Brethren
When heartbreak
Consumes
Your soul
And holds
You in our
Eternal stocks
To line up
In the cold
And sing
To sing
The pain out"
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
No comments:
Post a Comment