Evan Hawthorn's Blog

Evan Hawthorn's Blog
(visual aid by Christian Schloe)

Monday, May 23, 2016

darkness I (an excerpt from my novella-poem "Sludge White and the Seven Curmudgeons")

darkness.  stark darkness.  utter and absolute.
attempts to use his limbs came to no avail.
as though his nerves had all been unfastened,
or his presence bound up in a bodiless jail.
had his nightmare tacked on another scene,
tightening the terror that held him in its vise?
what had happened to the children's frail hands
he was so used to seeing when he closed his eyes?

he'd no idea of where he might be
and wasn't even certain that was apropos.
for how could he inhabit a location
that none of his senses could possibly know?
constantly rehashing recent events
he rummaged for an anchor to steady his mind,
hoping for a clue to illuminate
the darkness comprising this paralyzing bind.

yet a subtle alteration was occurring
of which he was only faintly aware.
for after an interval that seemed eternal
perception crept into his senseless lair.
and the insight arrived in a sudden flash
that he and his thoughts were no longer alone,
like a primeval dawning of consciousness
sparking on barrens of solitary stone.

darkness.  still darkness.  stultifying and severe.
but misery flickered beyond the pale.
and he strained his reason for the frequency
that wavered with a lonely, heart-rending wail.
a ray of hope ecstatically erupted
that he might subdue his dispiriting fear.
for somewhere in the vale of mind-numbing darkness
someone was sobbing that Pally could hear.
*** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** *** ** ***
- Evan Hawthorn, the 23rd of May, 2016

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