Last Reflection as the Curtains Fall

Cold, spill all over me
like an incessant wind.

Emotions, stop.
You have taken your toll on my heart.
I want you to dry out, whither away
like the leaves of the autumn trees.

I sit here content, yet idleness surrounds me.
In a world full of selfish expectations,
Islands beguile me, in isolation,
standing, running, pushing
loneliness is key to their survival.

Falseness, mediocrity, banality
sweet daughters of Inertia
spew your forceful winds
upon mind’s faculty.

Thinking, stop.
You embarrass me - harass me with your arrogant caress.
Unravel me, reflect upon me, inside me,
embellish my soul.

I analyze too much, and hold back nothing.
You are the mirror of my speech, but do my words really capture you?

Emotions, stop.
Thinking, analyzing,
these islands don’t whither away.
The nymph of Ars Poetica saves my soul.
I stand, stronger than ever, yet I am cold.

The world is so much more than before, and I feel nothing.
Silence, a little more, so much heaven, so much heaven and so much hell,
So much more than I thought this world could ever be as though it fell...

Reviews

[Vatsayayana]

I don't believe its just high schools that are faltering, floundering in today's society.
I approach the brink of allowing my child, who turned 5 last Thursday, to attend public school. She enters kindergarten in the fall. I shudder to think of it. But it is her wish to go to school rather than be home schooled. I believe in the socialization aspect but I'm finding that today's curriculum is a sore, pitiful excuse to approaching education.

When I went to high school, it was easy for me, learning has always been that way. But college was different and I don't believe I was prepared for it. At least the drama of high school finally faded away in a black curtain. No more cheerleaders, very few jocks (at least in the classes I attended), there was a "grown up" air that radiated in college. I found myself drawn towards those at least two decades older than me revealing in the differences I had left behind in high school.

But education wise? I admit I floundered, struggled. The idea of "leave no child behind" was prominent even then, over ten years ago. Teachers pushed to move struggling students ahead with their classmates rather than give in and get them the education they needed, the help. Problem students were moved ahead as to "remove" them from the system.

While my interpretation of your piece here, might be vastly different from your intended or desired shape, obviously ~grin~ you have succeeded in making me think. In reminding me of my own struggles and triumphant within the education system. Of the trepidation I feel in letting my daughter traverse some of the same paths I previously sailed over.

Your imagery is vivid, sharp. It allowed me to draw upon my own experiences within high school. The lunchroom. The arrangement of tables following the popular crowd (cheerleaders, jocks, the filthy rich) and on down the line to the geeks and sheiks. I still haven't forgotten that piranha filled cess-pool. It's amazing what high school is like. Then to contemplate your high school reunion ten years later. ~shudder~ Scary.

And yet... with your words here, the imagery captures the true loneliness of high school. Of trying to fit in. Of trying to find yourself:

"I sit here content, yet idleness surrounds me.
In a world full of selfish expectations,
Islands beguile me, in isolation,
standing, running, pushing
loneliness is key to their survival."

High school is all about survival. In some aspects there isn't a wilder place that will cavort on our life paths. But it also teaches that survival instinct of surviving in the cunning business world lying outside its borders.

Beautifully stated my dear. :o) You've drudged up some rather intense emotions for me and made me contemplate them. I'm just blessing my lucky stars that I can look back upon all of it, a small winsome, experienced smile painted upon my lips. Yes indeed lucky, for I survived.

[Legion]

Yes, so much heaven and so much hell. A brilliant write. Can't say much more than that. Well done.

[The Archangel Gabriel]

Great work! Ya still got it, wonderful! Keep up the great work!

-Gabe