Witness of The Vicious Plane

Witness of The Vicious Plane

I sat upon

finest silk

and

smoothest silver

as I looked toward

the city below

and I saw such destruction

I beheld fields of mud

and fields of flames

and most often

fields of the dead

and yet 

people still 

farmed that land

dragging hoes and shovels

through dust and sea

and when one happened upon a potato 

green and thin

those of similar stature 

cheered and laughed

and that stony root

was their finest silver

I beheld tarnished markets

and storerooms hoarding freshest air

and worst of all

markets of man

fewer danced these aisles 

than the ones of mud

but still

they danced

through the rotting bazaar

and toward the ripe women

and as those poor children 

tread forward

for smallest coin

for them 

it was the smoothest silver

I beheld burning spires

and falling temples

which now only sheltered evil

and instead man found comfort

against the ruin 

and children played and cried

all the same

whilst centuries collapsed

against their virtues

and I saw a man

laying near a smoldering pile

which the wind often put out

and for him

it was the smoothest silk

I beheld great storms

and terrible winds

which now only blew ice

and man endured all the same

fluffy coats

which made man waddle

like a brother from a distant land

while in his land

he tread on the tanner snow

and slipped on marble

though unlike his brother

who could not know darkness

the suns would not rise

though I saw a man smile 

beneath his ruined coyote coat

and for him

it was the finest silk

and finally 

I beheld the sky

and witnessed that hole

where a tear fell from

and it splashed against the ground

dampening all with hope

and I kicked my silver 

and threw the silk

out of my tower

and raised my heart to that hole 

while my fingers flattened my knuckles

and I cried:

“Oh, Lord.

Empty the carrying sacks of all those here,

Nay!  All of the burdened, and all of the unseen.

And fill my empty vessel.

Let me take on their pain,

that I cannot bear,

so I may have calves like a horse;

and the heart of all oxen.”

And so many more tears fell.

And while so many men cheered and cried,

the stone of my tower turned to ash.

And I smiled as it fell, 

and welcomed my new nature.

For I was now:

A bucket for the ocean.