In the echoing streets of the city’s bright gleam, To its towering giants, this tale we now dream. From cosmic expanses, O Light, you did stray, From dawn’s gentle kiss, to twilight’s soft grace.
Once brilliant and burning, a guide and a spark, Now dimmed and distant, lost in the dark. Did you not aim, with ambition so vast, To conquer the limits, to outshine the past?
‘I’ll shine,’ you pronounced, ‘beyond what’s been seen, Illuminating paths, making shadows convene. Atop city spires, my glow shall be cast, Overcoming the night, till darkness is passed.’
Dreams that brilliant, stretching afar, Only dimmed your essence, hid your true star. For in vying with the sun’s radiant might, You faded to twilight, from purest of light.
To the quiet, soft spaces, O lost glow, you flee, To the shadows’ caress, where you’re meant to be. Even amidst brightness, where dreams do alight, Fate lingers close, in the alley’s dim light.
So now you bask in darkness, no light, no life, no star, no beauty, just an endless dark night. You flew too close to the sun, so your wings were clipped, now you reside forever alone deep in your crypt.
When I penned this poem, I was reflecting on the dangers of unbridled ambition and the often unpredictable consequences of chasing dreams without introspection. I envisioned a luminous entity that once illuminated every corner, every street, representing someone full of potential and dreams. But in its quest to surpass even the sun, this light lost its essence, much like Icarus in the age-old tale. It’s a cautionary tale, reminding me that sometimes, in our quest to stand out and achieve greatness, we can lose ourselves. By the poem’s end, the light finds itself in a place of desolation, having traded its authentic brilliance for a fleeting moment of unmatched shine. It serves as a personal reminder to me to balance ambition with self-awareness, to know my limits, and to cherish authenticity over transient glory.
Blakeney-Rose Berry 