Relief Map Bodies
by Odin Roark

...too few seek truth
up close without remorse
unwilling to forfeit
the smooth
the cool
youth's interminable clinging
to an undivided cell's inexperience

Greeting Age's mentor of sculpted guise
shows Time's bestowed gifts
Risk
wrapped in chance rewards
Belief
tied with razor wire bows
Wisdom
delivered sometimes late

How perfect

these lessons
taught on mindscape's rutted roads
rock strewn paths
precipitous switchbacks
leading to peaks
many times
just out of reach

Along the way

tributaries determine to carry
residual afloat down and across
seeking further landscapes
where flowered pigment
rides astride nighttime predators
softening dreams of challenge
coloring awakening with worth

How few embrace

Life's weathered landscapes
planted
tilled
harvested
by one's own insistent nature

How vast the number

pursuing elaborate escape plans
forever following the jester's
mirage of youth
mystically obviating the flat
the barren
the deserted plain
asking absolution for one's inner mirror
reflections borne of shattered innocence
we willingly give up
while grappling
Acceptance
Trust
Respect
Truth

But Time

remains generous
for those willing to refute the reaper's insistence
accepting instead one's dimensionally carved character
where aging landmarks belie denial
celebrate sculpted bas-relief
welcome trophies of
wrinkled ribbons
engraved plaques
nature's forged medals
awaiting final polish
for the display
named
death

How soothing

how honorable
such deliverance must be
to stand naked
before honest reflections
embracing the all
the once eruptive force of birth
now the image addressing
fogged windows of fate

Such might be

Gravity's final hurrah
Tethered essence set aloft
Perpetuation's opening act
Infinity's endless theatre