Smoke and Mirrors

reluctant poetry

I’ve only espoused one cause in my life
The cause of myself. I champion me.
My loves and my rages, opinions, and pinions, and ways,
My privileged dreams; my unique debris.

Precarious hold on the world, that seemed all right
at the time — well-centered in self. No outside
Lines to tangle my senses with anything else.
Delicious, the knowing; the irony snide.

But now the room has filled with smoke; the mirror grins — 
Begins to fade. The water of time
Will burst my joints unless they move at last.
I venture out; seek out; wear out; decline. Sublime.

A perfect cello, never played, 
Is only wood and string mislaid.