Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-28428152-20180402221027

I don't really think this one belongs on the wiki, it's a bit too feel-good. But I figured why not post it here anyways. Honestly not my favorite. Experimental insomuch as having irregular rhyme schemes and rhythms.

Grassy fields, all so endless

This infinite plain, your feet to take

Always in circles, never to advance

Repeat! Obstacles so senseless

You’re not One, but only a fake

No solution, seemingly a trance

Fields of misery and voids of sorrow

Air so stifled, send darkness to Apollo

Sticky despair: Worsts of gifts to him

Looming is the Great Morrow

Your soul has been carved out so hollow

For tools, you have but fragile limbs

Confusion: Everest’s peak

Anguish: Alongside Styx

Souls: None to see

What do you really seek?

Your mind is but a mix

You are not to be

Stars swimming above so high

Your struggling reach to fail

Your knees to be your resting place

Timidly, you cry

Never do you sail

Lost… a speck in this space

Buried under the grass—

Fuzzy blades to be nothing but.

Together, your limbs and the grass knot

Misery: Not to pass

Stalks: you fail to cut

Answers: None where sought

Desperation all consuming

Your needs become all

Prayers to go unanswered

A shriek, so booming!

Dust flies from a pounced fall

Prayers to be answered

Great paws slash your face across

Screeching not for a moment’s pause

Angry for seemingly no cause

A beast, truly great

The Sphinx, not to hate

Heart pounding for high rate

“You filthy slime!

Why, to waste my time”

But you wish not to mime

“Oh, truly you’re such a waste!”

“But I’m here, tied to this paste!”

Alas, you best haste

“Surely not petty greed?

No? Surely help you need.”

“Surely indeed.”

“Oh, but I must ask why.”

“Well, I must not lie.”

“To do so would not be sly.”

“Is this but a riddle in a series?”

“Indeed, one of a spree,

So having begun, answer it to me.”

“I need only to contemplate.

Words—For an order I must create.”

The Sphinx: Not one to make wait

“Life, for some, is bountiful

Others, it is not so colorful,

And to me, it has been so baleful.

“A truce for my life I seek.

Happiness: A forbidden fruit I’ve heard some speak,

My existence to have but meaning so meek.”

Gleaming: Daggers of destruction

Glistening: Sweat and anticipation

Grinding: Claws to hard dirt

An illusion, your face to drop

Surely now to meet life’s stop

On the Sphinx, a smile pops—

Not one to mock.

“I grant the response satisfactory.

Not a liar, perhaps some value.

But of wit, any do you have?”

“Please! My life heads nowhere!

I’ve nothing to lose,

Yet the world to gain!”

An eyebrow to raise from query

“Prove to me, now can you?”

“Give unto me what you have.”

“Very well.

A question to give, so will I

For you to answer thus following:

“’Tis I, not so swell.

In the sewers I lie,

And those I meet become my hollowing.

“Thus a riddle so given,

And can you rightfully answer?”

“A shot I shall give, so long as I live.

“Alas, there be many things not pleasant.

To reside in sewers... not rot and grime.

And to always despair is dirt and neglect.

“And so: Filth, like that on a peasant.

Alas, is my answer as real as time?”

“’Tis so. Yet less than I’d expect.

“Yet so, the queries go on,

Surely for you to fail.

But answer my riddle now:

“Like the edge of an ocean,

I am nary a place for sail—

A sea for all to know.”

“The edge of the sea is never high,

And any vessel requires depth,

But the only waters to know are transparent.

“And so, I give Shallowness so spry,

A place so easy to procure breath.”

“Yes, your wit is apparent.

“So tell me now,

Given some clues,

Exactly what I am:

“My emotions, to never endow,

I rely on mimicked cues.

The wolf excludes me, the lost lamb.”

“One might reserve out of fear,

Which supports the median hint,

But alone is the lamb left uneaten.

“And so, I give Loneliness to procure many a tear,

Alongside Rejection, confidence so broken and bent.”

“My, oh, my, to remain unbeaten!

“And now, to give a final riddle, one last,

Your savory fate close to you.

I’d not take this one lightly.

“I seem to consume your fate, future, present, and past—

An encasement of your heart in a soulless tomb,

Reprimanding your mind almost nightly.”

“You describe an ever-present plague,

One to destroy the spirit so harshly.

And under the moon is easiest to brood.

“Thus, I give Internal Scars, full of pain,

Your mental state to be so marshy.

“Lo! A successor! Not a single bit crude!

“Truly enthused, now to the laws that be!

Your request, I shall eagerly give,

A fate of success and good glee!”

Overwhelmed by gracious joy,

“This gift, of which will I live?”

“This token, to you I employ.”

The grasses release your broken limbs

The yellow sun to kiss the air

A final thanks to the Sphinx, you send

Now back in your bed,

You wonder if it was a dream or despair

Will this path truly be led?

With a life once disparaged,

Never have you been more alive

One day bound in handsome marriage

An inevitable success,

In your profession you stride

Frequent thanks to the Sphinx to confess

Blessed with capable successor

The world welcomes your contribution

Truly tribute to your predecessors

Your memory forever down the stream

In your name are many institutions

Pleasantries in life to always teem

Now wrinkled and greyed with time

Lying on your warm deathbed

Appears the Sphinx, not one to mime

You grim warmly at your eternal friend

Seemingly a yellowed memory from an old homestead

And for a final farewell, you must attend

“Ah, my oldest dear,

Your mark did truly sear.”

“So grateful, I see, with death so near.”

You chuckle and shake your pruned head

“My thanks will carry long after I’m dead.”

“Hush, now, tell of your tale, or enough has been said.”

Sighing, you tell him of your blessed ways

“I’ve sheltered the homeless and rescued the strays.

And I’ve dulled the world’s hunger for many more days.”

“Truly so great, I observe.

None, can I think, who so dearly deserves

My blessings for their efforts to preserve.

“For you to smile so gracefully in the end,

For you, I simply wish to send

My farewell, for your life is now spent.

“But tell me more of your life of yore,

To alleviate these ears so sore.”

You yawn in bore.

“I fixed the run-down bridges,

And gave comfort to those in stitches.

Motivation as well to society’s leeches.

“I gave fame to the artisans,

And changed the game of the Spartans.

Too, did I unveil the truth behind the curtains.”

“Truly, a better place is this world,

I see my blessing was not spoiled.”

The Sphinx smiles, his grin black and oiled

“However, I have come to take you into the banks,

Your time over for remediation of taint.”

Resigning, you give your final thanks

Cold and blind under the sheets that bind

In a peaceful doze, they will find

Sorrowful tears at this loss to mankind

But your memory will live long

A king of good, you sail on

With your old pal Tom

So peaceful is the end

Your image, they will defend

Inspiration, having been sent 