Arliden the Bard

@arliden.bsky.social

I am an educator, atmospheric scientist, and poet. My poetry: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:brm2o4aer5g7lh4lizarnjaw/feed/aaaifc4sou2de My book: Love, Stars, and Paradigms. Available on Amazon. Co-host of #QuickQuill (@quickquill.bsky.social)

I am closing a door.

I am with you on one side
I'm also on the other side

I'm putting my anger
into the box
of questions I can't answer

and this wound
well maybe, in time,
even that will feel special
I must have truly loved
to have such a scar
that will forever
be tender to the touch

always will I have wished
I could change your story
but since I cannot
I will stick with mine

it’s a good one
and you,
you’re so amazing

don’t worry
I’ll be visiting this door
peeking in
and I’ll probably be crying
like I am right now

and there will be a moment
when I first see that door
where I’ll wonder, I’ll hope
you have a door like this too

$My Eternity energy and chaos churning I blink, what is my quantum state? no form for eyes discerning I can do nothing but wait for weight with muons and gluons burning no demon full of hellish fury or soul worth grievous spurning knows the heat that starts my journey in fractured temporal storming fragile existence expanding my protons and electrons forming the universe is grandstanding opposites attract, particles conforming to find orbits in that quantum foam the first of all elements is swarming looking for my nebular home thick and thin gasses, uneven masses gravity sorts out the cloud's confusion swept and swirled in stellar morasses the pressure builds in cores of fusion my life is nuclear, neutrons are made I'm turned into carbon at six and six a supernova ensues as energy fades I explode into the hydrogen mix and on and on, star to dust to star until finally shaped in molten sphere cooling crystals of quartz and feldspar this is my planet, I’m finally here hard rock lies still while water flows molecules of simple protein grow fatter bathed in the warmth of geothermal glow base pairs twist to form that helical ladder then in each successive replication a fight to survive the natural selection copies borne with random mutations fear to be subjects of nature's rejection smell, sight and sound - sharpening senses complexity grows - evolutionary connection avoiding predation - gaining defenses building of immunity to combat infection here I stand, human, against all odds limping to now, eyes with dried tears the winner of the day, no need of gods my prize a lucky seventy or eighty years when it's time, Death's touch does freeze atop flaming pyre my body resides my ashes blow away with the breeze some parts of me become lithified my carbon is breathed in by the trees a deer eats grass, that has me inside I glide through time with magnificent ease I always have lived, and never have died$