Élan Vital
by Odin Roark

Remembered upbringing,
conditioning,
controlling
amidst darkness;
do this,
do that,
sallow,
sad,
programed rearing.

A day arrives,
smoldering choices pondered
but never engaged
become antipathy's eruption,
inner flames lick vacuous air,
singed thoughts once stranded come alive,
dancing atop the flames.

Smoke drifts away,
exiled forever,
clarity emerges,
answers become transparent.

Valleys spread before us
mental landscapes become nurtured,
seeded by epiphanies
sprouting growth without poisons,
awaiting harvest with patience.

Beyond…

Our chameleon mountain,
the mirrored self,
reflecting molten layers,
stored stratum energy
awaiting instinct’s arousal.

Sleeping with one eye open,
honesty’s liquid fire deep within
awakens its tectonic need,
preparing life's internment to be free.

Such a desire is often forever pondered,
fearful of the when,
the if,
the how,
and especially the why…
why this fluid tremor kept repressed so long
will choose a particular moment
to purge out of a painful past?

For what?

To bury?

To forget?

Consider a grander plan…

To scatter and perpetuate life's seeding,
willingly rebirthing existence,
feeding upon itself,
ingesting,
transcending,
joining the cosmic continuum ad infinitum,
becoming part of the quintessential hour glass of time,
the élan vital of one’s inner self
the perpetual beginning and end.