Obscurity (new poem)

 

Obscurity (new poem)
by Tim Kavi

a message in a bottle

swam the darkened sea

landed on a sandy shore

the contents therein

hopelessly dated

a voice, daring to speak

in a galaxy of voices

an atom sparked in a shell

uncertainty making

no exact measurements possible

yet I shall speak

I shall still dare to exist

making choices no others can make,

quaking in fear, daring to utter

but only fading

how much does obscurity

diminish what the artist says,

screeching like a bat out of hell,

pronouncing like an angel,

scrolls of holy writ,

will there be no hearers?

will there be no readers?

yet I speak, are my words not worthy?

paragraphs, but only monologue?

I want dialogue!

So, I pray draw closer

as my voice withers with whispers

my throat is parched,

I long  for the smooth drinking

of words uttered "well" enough

prose that gets your attention

you dare to deem it so worthy?

based only on who or what you think?

of who I am, or what I have said,

but we are completely only human,

transfixed and far apart,

knowing now, that our lives

are so valuable, wanting meaning

to be seen again, we search

for one another (post-pandemic)

let us turn to the Other,

speaking gentle words of esteem

even kindness and affinity

for all others, we come with

sure words of a brave love.

I only hope we hear, we read,

we esteem each other!

speech acts of sincere meaning

lost in nighttime's dark scheming,

longing for the light,

we can find each other

we can build again

darkened corners of unlit

cityscapes, reduced to rubble

avoiding death, and other trouble,

we will dance again

you shall see in the light

shaking the dust off

we will go to school again

and enjoy the fruits of our labors,

the happiness of each other

finding that obscurity 

was only an illusion

a feigned sense of all that was

into the unmistakable joy of what is.