Ode to Growing Indifference

I have seen you in the dark,

I have seen you leave your mark

In starlit nights I’ve left behind.

The eaten orange, spotless rinds

The juice all slurped, the sugar tasted

The vast years, endless, kissed, so faceless.

Your siren’s call bleats, bays, breathes in my chest

Your dullness aches and we let it fester.

At one time you did not hold

Me. I was undaunted, bold.

And then I saw the wars we made;

And then I saw the poor deflate;

I saw the screamers scream, marchers march.

The Changers tried but faltered, then arched

And became what they had wished to destroy.

The aching slouch which hums your easy noise.

Another sun come to rise

Another son broods demise

Another daughter lost in gray

Silent slaughter of day to day.

I wake slowly peeling back my sheets

And ponder why I will walk my feet

Down the steps, the road, to the orange grove

Where the colorless flame less brightly glows.

Eat the juice and let it drip.

Push you back so I can sit 

And speak the poems which preach of yore

Yet twinkling stars I seek no more.

The fruit is tasteless, its color gone,

I am tasteless, gray, a perfect pawn.

Thief, liar, a taker of desire.

Had the fruit always rot, and me no fire?