Essence of Clarity

Poem by: DampKitten

Reads: 538 | Likes: 2 | Shelves: 2 | Comments: 13

Featured Review on this writing by Writing_wall44

"That's a deep, disturbing visual of death. I love it!"

Something lovely...

Essence of Clarity

Here come the

maggots, pale and foreboding

quiet missionaries

blind to the sun, deaf to

the pounding rain. Nerveless, senseless,

emotionless brutes, boring their

way

until, without benefit

of cocoon, without storied glorious

ascension of beauty, without

celebrity of portrait or analogy

to transformation,

they burst into brightness, eyes

like a thousand colorful

prisms, paper thin wings, glistening

hairy flavorful filaments -

they burst

into a moan of

microscopic wind, a hovering

cloud of hope high above

the stench. And then

they descend, particles of

dust weighted with

knowledge, sipping and

plucking the tender

flesh

until the bone bleeds through

as a gleaming concretion,

still and sublime,

glowing

in its salty

white

truth

Submitted: October 11, 2020

Non-Fiction death truth revelation decay

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Writing_wall44

That's a deep, disturbing visual of death. I love it!

Sun, October 11th, 2020 8:31pm

Author
Reply

I misspoke in the tags because I didn't really intend this to be focused so much on death. As Dr. Lecter says in Silence of the Lambs, "That's incidental". To me, it's really more about revelation and recognition of validity.

It's probably too complicated to see, but I'm making an indirect comparison between the transformation of the fly vs the Butterfly - beauty vs commonality. The fly has little to offer but it's diligent work at clearing away decay. The butterfly just floats around looking lovely. But what do we appreciate? Where is the truth in what we really see?

Sun, October 11th, 2020 4:44pm

Lizziewolf

Thank you for this vision that strenghens my belief cremation is better...Love, Lizzie.

Sun, October 11th, 2020 11:21pm

Author
Reply

Well, it's certainly cheaper. I just don't think I can go that route.
Thanks for reading, girl!

Sun, October 11th, 2020 8:31pm

Writing_wall44

I actually totally saw the butterfly in it and I can see the comparison. I wasn't saying the whole thing was about death but your imagery "plucking the tender flesh until the bone bleeds through" really impacted me.

I hadn't noticed your tags beforehand, to be honest, it was just the impression I got. I love how you took something most people find at least annoying and gave it a beautiful purpose and meaning, while showing the vanity of something most people love.

Mon, October 12th, 2020 12:00am

Author
Reply

Thank you...I often hold on to poems for a while and revisit them before I post, but I just fired this one off today. Sometimes I like to write in free verse, though I particularly love rhyme and meter.

I think the thing I like about poetry is that sometimes you can't completely convey what it means in everyday discourse. The best analogy to this poem in my mind is the historical account (I'd have to look up the date) of when Lady Di was killed. Mother Theresa apparently died almost simultaneously and the funerals occurred on opposite ends of the world - Diana with a massive entourage of royalty and flowers, Elton John singing Candle in the Wind, an enormous outpouring of worldwide remorse. At nearly the same moment, Mother Theresa was laid to rest in a plain wooden box and carried on the backs of peasants who had eaten the rations her hands had prepared, slept in the huts her work had established, and prayed the prayers she had taught them to pray. What a remarkable moment of irony in world history. Who is the butterfly?

Sun, October 11th, 2020 9:03pm

Writing_wall44

I had no idea those events happened at the same time. And that’s probably the point.

Mon, October 12th, 2020 4:18am

Storywriterx

Only you could make something as gross as a maggot eating rotting flesh sound eroiic

Mon, October 12th, 2020 11:25am

Author
Reply

I don't think it sounds very erotic. That wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I won't argue with your interpretation...

Mon, October 12th, 2020 5:18pm

VanillaEssence

dk.I found your replies more enlightening than the fabulously well written poem.Another truth is that light in its natural form is neutral.Our eyes receive reflected lightwaves from a surface.As an example if we see a blue surface it is because that surface has absorbed all other wavelengths (colors) of natural light and reflected the blue wavelength back into our eyes.Color is an optical illusion.

Tue, October 13th, 2020 3:02am

Author
Reply

Everything is an illusion, V! But thanks for the science lesson. In essence, tomatoes are everything but red...

Tue, October 13th, 2020 9:26pm

Extinct

WOW! The imagination you create with the words , 'salty white truth' , and so many like you make us taste the word and feel it like idk its crazy poetic intelligence!

Wed, October 14th, 2020 3:11am

Author
Reply

Wow, yourself, and thank you! You know I love your comments, girl!

Tue, October 13th, 2020 9:24pm

Spyguy

I see a butterfly in you, and the flies can stay away!

Tue, December 1st, 2020 7:29am

Author
Reply

Thank you, Spy! Have you ever read that book, "Lord of the Flies"?

Thu, December 3rd, 2020 7:57pm

Spyguy

If so it was decades ago, & I have no memory of it!