May 24, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

The Nightbird Sings (Passing Phase)
©May 24, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

The night bird sings a lonely song.
For she awaits one who
Is passing through.

It’s a passing phase, this
Like all the rest of them.
This despair, this elation
This sunny day, this cloudy one,
This happiness at seeing loved ones arrive
This sadness at seeing them leave.
When the time comes to die,
All this will be the memory of a dream.

It’s a passing phase, this
Like all the rest of them.
All that springing, leaping joy
In her blood in her youth
All that intense passion
In his bones, occluding thought.
When the time comes to die,
All this will be the memory of a dream.

So much rage comes and slashes away
At good sense, so much despair
So much anger and sorrow.

So much unhinged emotion drives
Away wholeness, and makes up
The stuff of songs and stories.

The girl who cries into her pillow
And wishes she were dead
The boy who stares self-hatred in the face
And courts Death.
The children who seek the love
Of those around them, and find none.
The women who look for their
Prince, who is off looking 
Elsewhere for his true love, while he
Slays imaginary dragons.
The men who seek greatness
And mistake achievement for it.
The women who follow their Muse
And find it hiding in distant lands –

All these will pass through
A doorway into one phase, and enter
A space to be filled, a phase
To round into, to curve out of.

If I could ask for one wish, it is this:
Let me pass away brightly,
Singing under my breath,
Whispering a poem,
Holding my loved one’s hand
At the height of peace
And fulfillment, knowing
All whom I love are safe, and will
Go on, through all the phases
Of their lives, waxing and waning in quiet.
Let them find the same peace I desire,
While the moon waxes and fills
The air with cool silver, and an unseen
Night bird sings her last song.

But if I do die as the moon wanes,
Let me fill the air with my own silver
And radiate with my open arms
An entire universe.  Let me in my
Final, dying phase, find my blackbird
While she sings in the dying night,
So I can soar away on her wings
And never return.

For the night bird sings a lonely song.
And she awaits one who
Is passing through.

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Written in response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Phase

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #phases, #TheDailyPost