PARADOXICAL

(Or, Going through Hades)

I am a flickering candle, melting its last wax. If I were the sun, I am on my way to setting behind the mountains. If I were a leaf, I am wilting and withering fast. I am an engine near breakdown. I am at the end of my rope and the last thread I am holding onto is about to split up. I’m a flower shriveling fast, my petals weltering, my essence spent. I’m a tunnel about to cave in, a river drying up, a condemned building about to collapse. I am like the leaning tower of Pisa, tottering on the verge of a crash. I am an army in a losing battle, with no reinforcement in sight. I am a nerve about to snap. I am a computer glitch, about to turn valuable data into catastrophe. I am an economy on the verge of collapse, an employee on retrenchment, a stockmarket about to crash, a currency on depreciation, a business on a slowdown if not a slump. I am an endangered species on the verge of extinction.. I am a forgotten museum piece deteriorating in some dusty corner. I am a strand of hair falling off, a memory on a lapse, a fever in relapse. I am a wrinkle sagging, collagen stiffening. I am an airplane crashing, my fuel dipping. I am singing the blues in the Great Depression. I am becoming impotent, flaccid, limp. If I were a pill I should be a depressant. I am a rooster crestfallen. I am an immune system giving up on the viral infection. I am floodwater stagnating. I am a beast of burden weighed down by my yoke, saddled with the boulders of oppression, torments, trials. I am an old furniture creaking, a clogged drain, a toilet out of order. I am a faucet running out of water, a pen running out of ink, a lamp running out of oil, a stove running out of gas, a battery running out of charge. My zest for life has flagged, my energy has been zapped, my confidence has dipped. I’m languishing in the doghouse, a jailbird without parole, a candidate for the gallows. I am a losing athlete, a waning show biz star, an unpopular political candidate. I am a metal corroding, a radioactive element in violent fission. I am van Gogh about to cut his ear, my paintings becoming gloomier by the hour. I am Romeo without his Juliet. I am Adam banished from Eden. I am Abel stabbed by Cain. I am Jonah inside the whale’s belly. I am a rotting log, where nothing but molds, fungi, and mildew thrive. I am a planet rotating off my spin, on its way to a black hole. If Darwin were here, he would have espoused the theory of devolution. I am a broken vase, my shards scattered. I am an electric circuit disconnected. I am a tattered cloth.

Lord, come down now from heaven and rescue me. I seem to be everything yet I remain nothing.

Deliver me now for I cannot count on anyone but You. Find me for I am lost.

posted by Resty Odon  # 8:57 PM