I Will Be Your Guide

“Let the beauty we love

 be what we do.”

                    ~Rumi

To say this was

built in 2021

isn’t quite true,

being that the

man who built it

was himself

on loan

and may

be measured

only by what

he has done

with what

was availed

to him.

From this

vantage point 

we can see

how the abuse 

over time was

effected by

thought, word, 

and deed

as he attempted 

to be more

valuable than he

misbelieved 

he was not, 

but how he

himself resulted

in becoming

the very feeling

we are now

receiving

on finding

ourselves at rest

within the ruins

of someone who

felt he must

make of himself

his own

work of art.

Here, it is possible

to witness the history

of all his striving.

See how the arch

barely stands half

dappled in irony 

by morning light.

Notice how 

the sunlight

plays on the

amputated arm,

in tandem with 

the subject’s

headlessness;

a statue too 

stilled by time’s 

passage

not to try

and still 

speak.

Which one of you

thinks this stone

is marble?

Anyone?

Well, I can tell

you all manner

of stones

have been known

to give themselves

away in hopes

of being made

more useful.

8/31/2021