The Sky

Welcome to the sky,

It’s a lovely place indeed.

Welcome to your home,

Please, sit, relax.

Have a drink.

You'll need it.

Fear not the dust,

Or the dangling cobweb.

Fear not the disrepair.

Soon you will clean it.

Why did you come here?

Do you know?

No, of course not.

No one does.

Many came here once,

Came for rest and refuge.

But their names were forgotten,

Lost in the sky.

Why do you stand? Come, sit.

Finish your drink.

I understand your fear,

You want to be remembered,

You want a legacy.

You came to the wrong place.

Yes, many came here once,

They wandered into the sky,

Looking for something,

Something bigger than themselves.

And I just watched them,

Watched them age and rot,

Watched them die,

Watched them be forgotten.

Now you sit in their dust,

You tread in their bones,

Is this what you want?

It's what you get.

Ah, I see you've finished your drink.

Very good.

Anytime now your eyes will close,

You will find yourself sleeping,

Drifting back into the dark,

From whence you came.

Yes my friend, welcome to the sky.

It's a lovely place indeed.

But if you wander too far,

Don't be afraid to take the fall.

 ____________________________

Well, that was fun! Poetry is something I dabble in only occasionally, but in the current political condition of the world I felt I had something relevant to say, so I decided to go ahead and say it. I hope this provided you something to think about and was thought-provoking in the reminiscent way poems often are. There was much I wanted to imbue within this piece, and notwithstanding the importance of authorial intent, I do hope I was able to convey some of it.

The Narrator is of interesting concern to me, and there are several interpretations of who they may be, all equally valid within their own context. Originally, I wanted the narrative of this poem to be somewhat of a dichotomy between foresight and hubris, with the Narrator embodying the former and the protagonist the latter. It seems I was relatively successful in this endeavor. As I started writing the verses, however, I began to notice that the Narrator was turning into somewhat of an immortal being, as well as an omniscient one. God perhaps, or the Devil? Maybe Fate, or Humility. I will leave you to contemplate on this.

The Sky, of course, can be interpreted as a reflection of excessive ambition and reckless pride. When one is swallowed by their own obsessive aspiration of a legacy, they often find they have a price to pay for their desired immortality. Many climb toward the Sky, and many reach it, but for what? And at what cost? Eventually they, like everyone else, will die. Often times their entire life would have been a race towards something greater, or towards some timeless ideal worth dying for. They might sacrifice everything for what they believe. Will they find redemption in this sacrifice? Maybe. People often devote their very lives to answering this question.

And what of the protagonist? He enters the Sky of his own accord, but I never mentioned why. This was not a coincidence. A legacy is something almost all of us want to leave, and yet many times our reasons for wanting to leave this legacy is subjective. Is it merely the result of some universal human desire for immortality? The fear of death, in other words. A sort of deal we make with our mortality. We must accept that we will die someday, but if we leave a part of us behind after our death, maybe it's not so bad, right? But many times we might not even have control over what legacy we leave behind. Other times we do. Should we still try to shape it, then? Or should we just accept our mortality, and live our lives in the moment?

These are hard questions, but they're worth asking. I'd say it's absolutely vital to ask them, in fact, because the answer we provide can teach us valuable things about ourselves. It can shape the way we live our life. So today, I ask them to you. What do you think? What affect did this poem have on you? What questions did it make you ask? And how will you answer those questions? Let me know in the comments, and hopefully, we'll further this discussion together. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next post!