Babble

[a_little_wisp]

Babble by a_little_wisp


I can't take care of you.

My goals have been leveled,
The debris and ash falls still,
(Though if from it a phoenix rises,
I would fly to you on its wings.)
And I test the weight of the rubble
And I judge the distance from the sky
And in dismay realize the great heights
I once built those dreams up towards.

It's a long way back up.

At very first glance
I wanted to tell you,
"I can't take care of you."
But I glanced again
Trying to fool myself
Into a "Maybe I can."
So I said nothing -
That's been the way of it lately.
This urn has run dry,
This pen does not yield any longer,
This heart (always) has room but
These arms are loaded
With the remnants of a fallen Tower of Babel,
At the center of my vanquished Babylon.
Forgive me for believing in
The Glory of the Man Who Dreams.

I know the rhymes well-
It's a long, dark way to Babylon
And now the warm wax drips around my fingers,
The flame, having swallowed the wick whole,
Choked, and killed itself;
The smoke, freed of its molten chain
Has long since passed with the last wind -
The last, tired breath I gave for this
Broken city.

And though my feet are still nimble and light,
They are unguided.

The girl you saw is only a girl,
Only a woman-child,
Only the echo of an oral myth,
Twisted in time,
A hollow cast of rusted tin
In the backyard of her youth,
Surrounded by the wilted
Hanging Gardens
Of her dreams.

I would be brutally ashamed
And mortified
If I took your hand
In my burned and burdened one
And was not able to hold on.

I can't take care of you.

[PrinceMyshkin]

You might not be able to take care of him or her but you sure as heck know how to take the measure and weight of a poetic line. They're all fine but I was specially struck by:


It's a long, dark way to Babylon

and


A hollow cast of rusted tin
In the backyard of her youth,

[Pendragon]

echo Prince. Also loved the lines

My goals have been leveled,
The debris and ash falls still,
(Though if from it a phoenix rises,

Sometimes I feel I am still waiting on my Phoenix...

[qimissung]

"These arms are loaded with the remnants of a fallen tower of Babel..." this is a lovely poem, wisp, very poignant. I think we have all had one moment when we had to realize and live with our limitations, whatever they may be.