Frozen in time.

Frozen in time
My guts still churn
Approaching absolute zero
Thoughts speed up, not slow down
The impenetrable gaze, of a Sphinx-like calm
Looking off into forever
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What happened to me?
Did I quest too far, in the search for truth?
Now I know, all there is to know
There is no one to share it with
‘Cause I’m the only one here
One last shiver, the spasm lasts an eternity
I have arrived
And now—and now I can never die
The price of living is death.
Oddly enough I never feared death
I prayed for death, I begged for death—but the answer was no.
For it was love itself, that I was afraid of.
It was my own love I was afraid of.
All of the mysteries are revealed
All has been lost in the quest for meaning.
The circle is complete, and now I will be reborn, and just in time to forget it all…to forget it all.

The city at night.

The cosmos favours no one for long
The stars hang above us
With the starkness of bones
White and dead
Once the framework of a man
We carry nothing with us
When we return from whence we came
Where then is the good?
The laws of God are inscribed upon the hearts of men
Deny this if you can
There is no escaping the sounds of the city at night
A place of masks
You shall soon see
I lay this upon you, oh desert son
Let me see the coming of the stars once again
Under them lies our fortune –
And our fate
The time has come—the waiting is done
The winds blow, the storm strikes
Expect no answers from me.

Inspired by the fantasies of Andre Norton.

New Poem: Saved by Death

c2011Shalako


I used to pray for Death

But then I feared to live

To live in fear is not to live at all

And I was living so very, very badly

To be confronted by Death is a very liberating experience

Maybe that is what saved me.

I was saved by Death.

Ships With Butterfly Wings

A tear falls to the sand

Waves and wind sigh in their passage

Over the sea to a far distant land

Up to the horizon and then a pause

And then he is gone

Heat of the sun never ceased

Gull's plaintive cries without cause

Forlorn hope never stops to sing

Blinking in the glare, she waits

A result must have a cause

When ships with butterfly wings

Beat into the wind on a quest so fine

Lovers torn apart for a time

No one can say the why of these things

The bonds have been released

Each is free to be their own

This is a seed that must have been sown

And no one can say its fate

Sometimes there is no way to win

But only to endure.

When ships with butterfly wings

Beating into the wind

Carry your heart across the ocean

It is all a person can do, sometimes

To wait and to pray, and to mourn.

The Tiger.

by Louis Bertrand Shalako

c2010

All Rights Reserved


You may wonder why I walk this way

You may ask why I sit this way

How come you never walk a straight path?

You may ask

Why are you so quiet?

You ask

Where did you learn to listen that way?

And why are your eyes so strange?

You may well ask

I am a tiger

A lean and hungry tiger

A wet, cold tiger

A lonely tiger

One with no home range

A tiger has no friends

Only enemies and prey

I’m a very tired tiger

Yet I cannot sleep

My ears will hear the wind in the trees

And in the darkest hour of night

I will arise and move on again

I am a tiger

Sometimes it’s hard being a tiger

Sometimes I want to weep, but don’t

‘Cause I’m a tiger

I guess that saying I’m a tiger is to say

I’m always hungry, always alert

Always watching

Listening and smelling

Waiting

For you.