die me dichotomy

[hamsterexastris]

The world moves on
regardless of me;
I am but a cog in the wheel.
If I were to leave,
a bit of slippage may occur
where I intersected with others,
but the machine as a whole
moves on.

Thus, I don't matter;
I don't affect the universe.
Nothing I do
can keep the stars from burning;
they were here long before me
and will be here long after.
Their lives, as such
move on.

If the world doesn't need me,
do I need the world?
Could I live
without the work of others?
No bloody way.
Food, water, shelter;
all can only be obtained from others.
No moving on for me.

That is, no moving on
along this path.
There is another,
not so much a path
as an end.
I must either embrace the pain,
or abandon it for nothingness
one I cannot return from.

Die me dichotomy.

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

I love the last line, because bugger if I know what it means but it sounds nice. A last ode to the confliction of one's inner being?

Miskal
Miskal stood and waited for a distant sun to die
While behind him, the highway hummed
And yellow windows winked out.

Held his breath, watching for that blink of ancient fire
While below him, pipes groaned
And the earth turned

Surely, he though, it must happen all the time:
While we sleep, a piece of our universe
Ends

So Miskal wished, impatient, for a bright star to expire
While above him, the moon glowed
And airplanes blared.

[atimson.livejournal.com]

Ode, yes, last ode... not so much. :-/ The last line is essentially a summation of the rest of the poem: two choices, mutually exclusive, and the decision has basically killed me, leaving me dead to the world because I'm stuck at the moment of choice, and don't know which path to take.

I wish I could offer more commentary on yours than "I like it", but, well, that's about all I can come up with. :) (Poetry has never really been my forté; still, I ought to dig through what I have and see if there's anything good enough to post....)