DISTORTED MELODIES

And this, the second one:

DISTORTED MELODIES

Many a moon had passed

Since creation’s seventh day.

Faced by Judgment, man was asked,

(Or so the legends say)

“For aeons thou haft lived a lie.

Thy end thou see’st now!

Yet thou art not awry.

To this, what say’st thou?

Speak well, O pawn of God,

For the morrow thou shalt not see.

Choose thy words of gold or of sod,

Thy final words they shalt be!”

Then’st spake the wisest man;

“The truth it is, thou speak:

We live a lie. From truth we ran.

Our hearts, our souls are weak.

Yet, this I ask of thee,

For angels of God thou art!

(thou art) Symbols of love that thou have us see;

Doth thou, indeed have hearts?

Born of melodies that distorted rang,

We are creatures worthy of love!

We lived in fear, in His praise we sang,

From creation’s ocean, to existence’s cove.

Beyond the skies and into the stars

The thing called ‘Perfection’ we chased.

Yet imperfection we embraced as ours,

For of it we were made.

Thee, who, of perfection, are born,

And know no fear, and know not death;

And the Seven Poisons who scorn.

I ask the so upon my last breath:

Is Envy not thy fatal flaw?

Of that envy, are we not the cause?

Is that not what He saw,

That thou art now disavowed?

We, whose life is but a moment’s flash,

And live it to the fullest through every bend,

Know not which day shalt be our last,

Thus, have no regrets at the very end.

Thus, drowned forever, in envy of us,

The world shalt not remember thee!

How bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved,

(tales of) Our valor shalt legend be!”

And then’st spoke, in his benign glory, He,

In a voice like the autumn sun:

“Well spoken, my beloved being,

For, afore perfection, thou haft won.”

-Ashutosh Galgali