See and hear the author read this poem at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibvofn3kawk
FINALITY
By no means will I behold you;
Never look upon your face.
I will not implore forgiveness,
Best I die with my disgrace.
Once you knew me from the inside,
Deep inside where thoughts are born;
Knew me as no one has known me,
When our love was in its morn.
Everything must change its season.
Flowers can’t maintain their bloom;
Like the fragile life of beauty,
Even love will know its doom.
Heaven does not know perfection;
Comets demonstrate that fact:
They careen throughout the cosmos,
Broken free from Zeus’s pact.
I’ll ne’er face again your anger;
See those sweet lips curl with scorn.
The weight carried on my shoulders
Counter-weighs the love I’ve borne.
Serpents crawl the paths of Eden.
Blood obliterates the trail
Of the “champions of justice”
Seeking for one's coffin’s nail.
From: The Beckoning Hand
Copyright 2006 © James Walter Orr