In the dark of night I can remember clearly. Black inked Latin scrawled on parchment stained with the tears of frustration, the blood of innovation. Bound leather spines keeping pages - etched with runes and the words of science - intact, holding information close to its nurtured core.
These secrets read by alchemists alone to gather the chemical components of Truth itself, which leads outward, far beyond the mind's limited capabilities to a Gate that stands between the brink of knowledge and disaster.
My eyes wander by light of burning wick, an earthly glow settling upon the walls that enslave my effortless abandon to these absorbing texts. Alone in the room where distractions fall flat, I study the tedious and complex jargon of array and symbol. It all forms a single, linear equation that boils down to a single, linear subject: "In order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost."
Beyond the glasses of my vision, these words have their own lifeforce, the ink throbbing like a person's beating heart. Solely, they hold the Pandora's Box that man is forbidden to open; in doing so, it only drives humans closer to the false throne of Heaven by masquerading as gods on earth. We - alchemists - believe that everything is connected.
Life, Death, and Truth.
I lay the hawk's feather quill in the ink, wetting the tip with ebony liquid thick as blood. I understood all of this information, - the diagrams and words and philosophical concepts. Perhaps because I was heading toward the winter of my life, I felt the need to dabble in this art form I had claimed as my last sane, earthly possession. Unbeknownst to my family - wife and sons - I didn't belong here. The very same innovating alchemy that helped so many has sunken its teeth into my flesh, letting its devil magic breed within my body. This shell of man that so lacked the ability to degenerate as time wore on become my prison as I watched all those around me age, and my youth clung to me like little black hands reaching from an endless abyss.
But beyond that darkness is Truth.
Often times I wonder, when the spade hand of the clock moves across its expressionless face to chime the hour, if my first mistake was worth it so many years ago.
Alchemy.
An entire civilization brought to its knees by force of avarice. And I stood there, clasping the flask that led to its destruction, horror icing my life's blood over and dilating golden eyes. This was my punishment for trying to dethrone our so-called Creator. All I had known was wiped away in a single night, and yet the guilt and remorse has never left my consciousness.
Come morn, I leave behind the home I built. Leaving this world of fact and arrays behind, this family I have grown to love.
Sliding my coat around my shoulders, single suitcase in hand, I look behind as the doorway to undetermined freedom opens, - and there I see my children, lost, scared, and confused, wondering why their mother looks so distraught and I, so distant and foreboding.
I depart without a single word.
Wow, this prose poem is very detailed and has many sentences where I can really see what you’re implying. I love the plot that you have created and how it seems almost completely accurate. How the alchemist lives forever as an immortal human being is incredible and for the king to be as greedy as he was is insane. I felt as though the king had no right to take advantage of the alchemist power to reach this higher power and receive answers that no one else is able to know. If everyone was able to know certain things it would defeat the purpose of wanting to know and would ruin the idea of having specific things continue to remain a mystery. It seems as though the “gate” is a metaphor for something as a higher power, such as God. This gate is leading to everything that is the truth, or everything that only God would know.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this poem; the meaning behind it was really strong. I think that the deeper meaning behind it was that life has mysteries for a reason and if we did not have those mysteries life would not be as exciting as it is today. When the man left his family because he could not handle watching this family grow and die in one life, it was very sad but it very understood at the same time. After reading this I was able to know why I do not know everything, all the questions about life that cannot be answered is now no longer a concern of mine. I know now that many questions are not supposed to be answered for a reason. This poem made a lot of sense and had a lot of meaning that is very relatable in certain lifestyles. Other than how the alchemist is immortal this poem could be very relatable to certain lifestyles. Many parents will have something wrong with them that they do not want their family knowing so they will leave without informing anyone so in the end they do not have to deal with the grief their family would have to go through.