"Idle Fantasy"
The wind blows cold in the nights
And hot in the days
Over a little isle,
Just east of Eden
(Hit Nod and you've gone too far.)
My days are spent there,
Fire-hot,
Fire-deadly,
Brighter than beauty.
And my nights there, too,
Freezing cold,
Warmed only by fancy and
The cool, bright hues
Of a cloudless,
Star-drenched sky.
Over in Eden
(A convenient Paradise lost,)
My unicorns graze.
They leave me in the daytime
In little packs of twelve,
And come back at night,
Curvier,
Lustrous,
Manes dancing into shimmering fog
Beneath a consistently
Silver-dollar moon.
They're dumb as sunlight,
Lucid as sunlight,
Wonderful as sunlight,
And I love them,
And I treasure them.
They frolic in overgrown Eden
And I tell them not to
Covet that center tree,
That low-hanging fruit.
I trust them.
(What could possibly go wrong?)
When they're gone
I dance through a stark room,
An ordinary room,
Plain beige walls and whiteboard,
The drone of mathematics,
Of chemistry,
Of quantity,
All hidden beneath low lights,
Grease paint,
And smooth, romantic jazz.
And I dance,
with gorgeous, flowing waves,
A crimson smile,
A long, poofed, crinoline dress
Trimmed with black lace,
Allure and majesty.
A slow, seductive E chord
Comes from God-Knows-Where
And a spotlight
Bright and lovely
Flown in from La-La-Land
With a big "ACME" stamped across the back.
It had arrived so swiftly,
You'd think it only an impulse away.
Then the sun curves downwards in a red-hot,
Violet-rich,
Blue-deadly spectacle.
I wait for it to come again,
Vain, slothful, Calypso-content,
Basking in starlight,
Tendrils of icy wind caressing my neck.
The wind stirs a cold longing,
A frostbite.
For the road to La La Land,
The road to God-Knows-Where,
The road to Nod,
And the road to Eden are all frozen over
With ice treacherous as malice,
Brutus,
the Styx,
or myself,
in the eyes of some cruel diety
I've seemed to transgress.
What wrong did I do Venus?
What wounds have I dealt God?
Why must I take shelter here,
Why must I live in recluse,
Why does the sun shine scaldingly,
Lucidly for me?
Why, from the front,
Does my isle look quaint,
From the inside,
Look infinite,
From Eden,
Look shallow,
Brighter than life,
Brighter than beauty?
I rarely ponder.
I've built an ephemeral,
Ethereal mansion,
And a fluff-filled fence.
I've conjured companions
From Cain's flesh-well
That bore his wife
(Where did she come from indeed.)
Ice thaws slowly
In this strange, candy-hued purgatory.
I wait for my unicorns,
Thundering over the frozen cobbles,
To carry me to Eden,
To Nod,
To somewhere I can grasp,
Touch,
Live.
The wind blows cold in the nights
And hot in the days
Over a little isle,
Just east of Eden
(Hit Nod and you've gone too far.)
My days are spent there,
Fire-hot,
Fire-deadly,
Brighter than beauty.
And my nights there, too,
Freezing cold,
Warmed only by fancy and
The cool, bright hues
Of a cloudless,
Star-drenched sky.
Over in Eden
(A convenient Paradise lost,)
My unicorns graze.
They leave me in the daytime
In little packs of twelve,
And come back at night,
Curvier,
Lustrous,
Manes dancing into shimmering fog
Beneath a consistently
Silver-dollar moon.
They're dumb as sunlight,
Lucid as sunlight,
Wonderful as sunlight,
And I love them,
And I treasure them.
They frolic in overgrown Eden
And I tell them not to
Covet that center tree,
That low-hanging fruit.
I trust them.
(What could possibly go wrong?)
When they're gone
I dance through a stark room,
An ordinary room,
Plain beige walls and whiteboard,
The drone of mathematics,
Of chemistry,
Of quantity,
All hidden beneath low lights,
Grease paint,
And smooth, romantic jazz.
And I dance,
with gorgeous, flowing waves,
A crimson smile,
A long, poofed, crinoline dress
Trimmed with black lace,
Allure and majesty.
A slow, seductive E chord
Comes from God-Knows-Where
And a spotlight
Bright and lovely
Flown in from La-La-Land
With a big "ACME" stamped across the back.
It had arrived so swiftly,
You'd think it only an impulse away.
Then the sun curves downwards in a red-hot,
Violet-rich,
Blue-deadly spectacle.
I wait for it to come again,
Vain, slothful, Calypso-content,
Basking in starlight,
Tendrils of icy wind caressing my neck.
The wind stirs a cold longing,
A frostbite.
For the road to La La Land,
The road to God-Knows-Where,
The road to Nod,
And the road to Eden are all frozen over
With ice treacherous as malice,
Brutus,
the Styx,
or myself,
in the eyes of some cruel diety
I've seemed to transgress.
What wrong did I do Venus?
What wounds have I dealt God?
Why must I take shelter here,
Why must I live in recluse,
Why does the sun shine scaldingly,
Lucidly for me?
Why, from the front,
Does my isle look quaint,
From the inside,
Look infinite,
From Eden,
Look shallow,
Brighter than life,
Brighter than beauty?
I rarely ponder.
I've built an ephemeral,
Ethereal mansion,
And a fluff-filled fence.
I've conjured companions
From Cain's flesh-well
That bore his wife
(Where did she come from indeed.)
Ice thaws slowly
In this strange, candy-hued purgatory.
I wait for my unicorns,
Thundering over the frozen cobbles,
To carry me to Eden,
To Nod,
To somewhere I can grasp,
Touch,
Live.