Weighted Beryl Tears

O.K. Mantz

A feldspar road of beryl tears

Lies battered, broken from the years

In gloom and smog and darkness wrapped

I, blinded, on this path am trapped.

Acacia trees on either side,

Two endless walls, both high and wide,

Beneath the brittle, shadowed path

A chasm reaches, brimmed with wrath.

A force doth kiss my trembling heels,

A granite cloud: my heart thus kneels.

The silhouette within the sea,

When clouds and stars the backdrop be,

Is weighted more than earth itself,

That even Atlas killed himself.

Southward bound upon these stones;

Flayed, I creep, dressed in mere bones.

Nebuchadnezzar’s grave doth lie

Along the path where I must die

And dwell amongst the lowly beast,

An ox on chains, the grass— a feast.

The mind is lost, my lips then froth—

Brittle skin, grey as a moth.

From the dark pours forth a mist:

Displays a path of amethyst

And alabaster, coral, nard—

A path of splendour, if not hard.

But endless walls, both wide and high,

Prevent my leave, force me to cry.

The path, not mine, for others meant—

My own lies treach’rous, dark, and bent.

I mark the other figures nigh

As I march onward, march to die.

Where poverty doth rob my purse;

Unhappiness remains my nurse;

Uncertainty, with quiv’ring knees,

Guards the gate betwixt the trees.

Can jeweléd rings mean more than wealth?

May there thrive love for my poor health?

Will doves prove faithful to a beast?

Are greatest great unto the least?

Unerblickt und unnützlich,

So wertlos wie ein Dichter—ich.

I take a step onto the road

To walk the path that fate once sowed.

My sole is caught on beryl tears,

That break and batter all my years.

In gloom and smog and darkness trapped,

I, blinded, on this path am wrapped.

What light doth light unlighted way?

What doth God speak when he doth pray?

Where stands my lantern? Where my steed?

All words prove worthless, but take heed:

Wretched tears transform this path

No more than all my past hopes hath.