~*~To Be Alone~*~

To bear a ring of power
is to be alone......and yet
in aloneness is growth;
to diminish is to know
the peace of home
and even breathing.
Thrusting is all.
You gaze into the pool
of knowledge, and see
your own face swollen
your eyes as cups of rain
the warping of your smile
cracks the window
of shivering innocence.
For the path of striving
no map has been drawn
you outline it with
the ink of your veins
and with every cut
you gain the sky
which grows ever closer
as you pierce its mystery
and the trees become
mere stalks at your feet.
You make counselors of stars
but lose all humble flowers.
In your swamp of solitude
you learn to float, or sink
into the dragging mire
where tempting shapes
show claws of black charity.

But if you will, you may climb
to a luminous platform
no other can reach
and all cities look up waiting
for you to rename their streets
replant their fields
and teach their armies
the patterns of victory
until they praise with one accord
the importance of your size.
And you wonder why
you were born for this,
why the weight of a planet
dangles in your keeping.
I can but tell you:
your growing is so that
others may retain
the sweetness that is born
of standing no higher
than the swinging gate
of earthly dreams.
Let them walk blindly
between your feet
thinking your tears
are summer rain.
Someday you will know
once more the joy
of smallness thousandfold
as your burden crashes
into a fiery chasm
and friends
are the true stars
that will kiss your face to rest.