Pallor

Pallor

Pallor befallen upon thee,

Swaying dwelling, unforeseen.

Reckon the shaft of darkness,

The binding of frozen currents,

Weighing coldly within the abyss.

 

Stolid stone from the Sun forlorn,

Tell me, where is the flaring blaze

Of thine endless feathers, lit aflame?

Is it thou for whom the albatross mourn?

 

Oblivious to the sliver of light

That dims the borders of thy sight,

Unable to move or go beyond,

The Sirens’ abode bound to become.

 

Thou fell from the vaulted skies,

All fire, lightning, and sparks,

Like a fiery and winged star,

Yet your trail was withered

And your airy frame collapsed.

 

Whichever wicked spell they cast on thee,

Thine ethereal body it petrified

As thou but caressed the ocean’s salt,

Turning into heavy stone, then drowned.

 

Amid the vastness of the ocean’s myths,

A strange new body of marbled limbs

Dreams away its airborne days of bliss,

Blending into the legends of the sea.

 

Shall thine alabaster eyes of yore

Ever fathom the wonders of the seaweed,

The mermaids, and the sea creatures—odd no more?

 

Shall thy weighty frame of grace bereft

Ever be discovered by future gazes

Enthralled by thy sorrowful granite hues?

 

Splendid igneous skin thou once hath,

A doleful rock thereafter thy carcass.

Wilt the distant stars ever heed thy silent murmur?

 

Thou art now, nonetheless, a dweller of the

Deep blue sea, no more flames alit,

limpets and barnacles thine oceanic armor.

 

Thou art for everlastingly a sea mystery

Grave and cold amidst the water shadows,

The only glitter that of thy petrous pallor.