Rage Against an Unseen Foe

"Rage Against an Unseen Foe"

Roaming thoughts, Roman ideas
Plastic squares contain them
Express, give them life
Searching, yearning, thinking
Refreshing too slowly, eyes blinking
Stars twinkling, thoughts--creeping
On the ceiling of the seeming-
Ly endless night

And here I sit, pounding away
Mind is racing, ideas escaping
So small a hand takes so much
From the things I want to say

Fate's fickle finger flickers on my screen
And I know of a certainty
That greatness was mine for an instant
I was to be the new Joyce
But, biochemistry and fate, mocked me
Abandoned me, nay, robbed me and banished
The thoughts to the dark nothingness of forgetting
My thoughts stood up, walked away, departed
On the Eve of Immortality
Non Omnis Moriar, I could have said
My angers rises
I see red, and I wish for death (someone's), but instead
Orpheus sings and gossamer fills my head.

There I lie, dreaming away
Mind is racing, ideas escaping
Deep sleep keeps far too much
Of the things I long to say

Waking, shaking, damned-near quaking
Anger fills the heart that's aching
Time has it out for me, there's no mistaking
Enemy actions when it's so plain to see.
One time: Coincidence
Twice: Circumstance or chance
The third time: enemy action, a deliberate
Attempt to rob my property.
Though I gazed upon a swollen river
And my thoughts conjured a masterpiece
I can never set foot in this same stream again
No one can, for other waters blah blah blah.
Yet, knowing this, knowing how hard it will be
I will never surrender to mine enemy
I will forevermore pursue the glorious quarry
Named Reknown, or die trying (as most do)

Here I brood, boiling away
Heart is beating, Time is cheating
Me of inspiration; it drains so much
In desperation I search for better things to say

And Adam, sinning in the beginning
Unknowingly aided his children.
Knowledge of all things became his
With one bite. A mere morsel and he became mortal
I ponder this fact as I grasp at hints
Of greatness that flash across my feeble human mind

I keep wasting time on this rhyme. But I haven't
Time to waste, I should make haste. Life is zooming by
Time continues ticking, it keeps slipping slipping
Slipping, into the future
And with every go around
That damned hand
Steals more as it moves in its eternal
And constant orbit around those roaming
Roman Ideas

Dedicated to the memory of Jorge Luis Borges (and Shakespeare)