Is this what it means to be overthrown—
reduced to a mere satellite, a scale
of someone else's might? My scales, my own
heart, are no longer my own, so I ail
beneath the gravity of an immense
mass, like a giant shackled by a god.
I want upheaval, an earthquake, intense
destruction, and I want the world to laud
me as its maker. I want to rage, strike
out, trumpet a whole planet to arms, but
each complete revolution leaves me like
the one before, in just the same place. What
can I do but bide my time, surrender
(for now) to this great system's defender?
The Defense of Gawain (Fragment 1) by williamszm, literature
Literature
The Defense of Gawain (Fragment 1)
He brushed his wavy hair from his pale face
Just like his horse was shaking off the flies
While following behind. Their limping pace
Was slow, although the city rang with cries
Surprised from friends who thought that he was dead--
But still his head slumped down, and still his eyes
And clammy cheeks were flushed with streaking red,
Though they were running, dashing to his side.
And then his young brother, half-laughing, said,
"Oh god, I thought--you know we thought you died?
That awful task--you left, you rode away--
And then did not come back. Oh, how I cried!
I thought you died. On last year's new-year's day
A year since you ha
I
I've for long known that beauty is not a sum, where units of measurements could consist of physical attributes, or of anything that could be perceived by bodily senses. The vivid, lush green of a finally quenched apprehension is just as graceful and lovely as the wrinkled and sunburnt blues of a distant memory's wall flowers. Beauty is a spectrum of vigour, the fluctuations of ideas, concepts, actions and thoughts, which become their own purposeless musical colours and flavours. No consensus creates allure, only a great, breathless leap into the disarray of affective venture may lead the consecrated energy to emerge.
II
I have seen the li
Old Age Should Burn by HaveTales-WillTell, literature
Literature
Old Age Should Burn
Like so many before me, during the twilight of my years my belly has expanded dramatically, even as I've lost so much of that which once gave me structure and strength. My frail skin has turned a fierce and blotchy red, with innumerable breakouts and occasional massive flareups. I'm no longer the bright light of the party which not so long ago I used to be, nor do my most intimate lifelong companions find me to be anywhere near as scorchingly hot as I was in my prime. Several of them, in fact, have already abandoned me.
With advanced age, even basic control over the simplest of bodily functions has been compromised. Lately, for example, I've
Main Character Group Therapy by Tobaeus, literature
Literature
Main Character Group Therapy
"Hello, my name is Aden, and I'm a lead character."
"Hello, Aden," the other members said in unison.
The therapist opened her hands in welcome. "Welcome, Aden. Why don't you start off by telling us a little about why you're here."
Aden shifted his feet and tried not to look at the others in this group. It was certainly the strangest collection of people he had seen, and he had seen quite a bit in his travels. "Well, I sacrificed myself to save my story's reality. Now my heart is a stone that reminded me of my brother."
"Thank you for sharing, Aden."
"I don't get it. Why is your heart a rock, and why does it