In Thorns Entwined

In Thorns Entwined

Bombarded by the cities choice of faces,

Along the streets of sex, genders and races,

The scary stilt skin giants, the lanky jokers,

Creepy clowns with masks, tobacco grime smokers.

I turned away from the chimps and the crowd afar,

Screeching and swinging skilfully on monkey bars…

Gave credence to the thought that I could evade,

This entire circus which had my soul betrayed…

As I felt the urge increase – as I felt it bleed,

My heart full of needles was thrown at His feet…

I had searched for funfairs but had reached defeat!

What I had seen was sufficient enough to suffice,

This life, this love, this death and all its strife,

Pursued so much… but then again…enough is never enough,

When insatiable desire was – still is – addicted to pure love?

Longing for silent tranquillity…

…Until the seen became unseen,

I saw the path, the way to peace

When reason became obscene…

A glade appeared from beyond the view,

I entered through to this avenue

And walked into a forest multi coloured in bloom

With prickling nettles, tall fern and fallen trunks,

Here the floral wilderness of spring sprang and sprung.

I climbed up the hill towards the protected gates,

To sit and rest under the trees and their shade,

But a strange force…A Pull…A Push of Gravity,

Inclined from up above and declined beneath me…

This spirit of the forest and this frosty reception,

It tarried me towards my homely grave and obsession…

What could I do but walk further into the shrubbery deep,

Until my feet ached so much they longed to sleep,

I walked and walked but still I found no peace,

Neither could I see the piece of the same path,

That I had followed – as it disappeared to my relief …

* * *

* * *

But now to my aching feet’s disbelieve – for they had reached

A thorny bush grown to the size for only butterflies to breeze,

Here was a site – a spiky sight – a solitary retreat!

The nettles thorns and thistle had grown so tall,

I could not see how far they spread, to where they sprawled?

But I could not turn back into that offending plain,

For any worthy journey is either humble or vain…

“Prod on…” The forest cried “And endure the pain’

So I so slightly pressed into the edgy hedge plain,

They tingled my flesh and tickled my soul,

They begged me “Darling, do come in for more…”

This prickling tantalising bush enticed me in,

So further deep I dived squealing and squiring,

Shrieking as the needles and thistles pierced my skin.

With heroic thoughts terror and bravery

Searching for freedom away from slavery,

I pushed further into what seemed within oblivion,

My heart in the jaws of defeat and deliverance.

I scolded myself to hold down the pain whilst I bled,

The poison upon the path I chose to stride and step,

My white skirt corrupted bearing the stains of blood,

The colour as a bud blooms into the rose of love,

I blossomed with the scars encrusted from the past,

And emerged from the cruel bush of stabbing barb,

Wearing a crown of sharp debris made to last.

I arrived at last to the end of the trail,

I had left behind and there in between,

I was trapped within a landscape of a hill slide

- Below and above a slope of trees,

Ahead there came to light unto another passage unseen…

Disbelieved when I perceived, the path ahead that lay displayed,

There prevailed the next task, bestowed upon this escapade…

A shrub of raw violence…

A natural force that push’s,

Through the earth to bear in silence,

What sight beheld me – but a strikingly brutal bush!

So this is what becomes of the desperately curios,

To be caught amidst the free, feral and furious,

Then torn from limb to limb, in a test of endurance?

Still I could not turn back through the past – I trod and passed away

So I travelled further along to die, upon the route that I had lost my way,

“Is this what I sought for my heavenly sanctuary?” I cried out in pain,

“Where are you my love, when you are closer than my jugular vein?

I came to this place I thought you would be here,

But instead you bring me to my knees in fear?

Is this how you show your jealousy to your lover?

When she is alone with you and has kept with no other?

Now if you are my friend then help me to endure this wretched pain,

And if I should die in this jungle let me die saying your name,

I swear my Love to you and dance upon the thorns in your garden,

Forgive me this, my frenzied bliss, fevering pretences ardent!”

My eyes bulging like big balloons, I begin to lick my wounds,

A dry mouth panting and body sweating like a beastly fool,

Like a wise buffoon, as light as an ant and as loyal as a dog,

I run down this path reaching my end and back against all odds,

I have survived and died survived again a thousand times,

For just one glimpse or a glimmer of the Ghostly Guide,

Who knew I had to sacrifice my pride,

Before I became again in Loves thorns entwined.

~ by Najma on August 11, 2008.