Tuesday, 11 April 2023

One Poem by Mark Hendrickson

 



The Time that is Given Us

 

“All we have to decide is 

what to do with the time that is given us.”

That’s what Tolkien tells us.

 

The kind of thing you say

as you lead others over mountain passes,

open hidden doors,

bring a light to dark places,

stand upon the bridge,

banish the flame;

 

when you are in control,

sane, sober, lucid, wise;

when you feel alive

and death is but a fear in the dark.

 

But what of the end,

when you face the dark chasm

and all is fire and darkness about you

and decision is taken away,

when there is no more time

and no more choice;

what then?

 

It is then that the whip curls about you

the fire envelops you.

You fall to unknowable depths of confusion

to places of cold and slime,

from there to grasp at the heels of madness;

to follow it up the endless stair,

to attempt to reach the summit of rationality

where eagles fly and reason reigns;

to smite down the enemy

and return once more to the world of men

as a new and greater thing, clothed in white.

 

But I am no wizard 

to conjure my own fate,

and time is not mine to conquer;

no there and back again.

I am but half a man

on a quest to lose a precious treasure

and save what I can, 

but not for myself.






Mark Hendrickson is an emerging poet who recently relocated to the Des Moines area.  His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Synkroniciti MagazineBefore becoming a poet, Mark worked for many years as a mental health technician in a locked psychiatric unit.  He has advanced degrees in Music, Health Information Management, and Marriage & Family Therapy.


http://www.markhendricksonpoetry.com/


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