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Writer's pictureTomás Tedesco

Life as a Sword

A long time ago

before I was born

into the XXI Century


I lived in a grasslands

pierced by arrows,

where steel helms sink

into the decay of worms.


In that grey autumn prairie,

I have met my demise.

***


In some lives, I got stabbed in the back,

trying to prevent the execution of my wife

by those I thought to be companions.


The embers at the center of the village

are the only colors I remember,

in an otherwise,

grey and brown-faded world.


***

Many times,

my soul left my body

with guttural screams,


as I reincarnated with knots in my back,

that always felt like a sharp stabbing knife.


***


In the XXI Century,

I often had dreams where I am in a grey landscape,

surrounded by knights, and white dusk.


In those dreams,

I swing my sword to end my enemies

but I'm the one who is cut instead.


***

I'm sitting on a couch,

in the XXI Century.


I descend beyond the fabric

where I'm sitting,

and I touch one life,

where death came from the front,

sword cleaving me into the ground

right where my abdomen marries my heart.

***


In the XXI Century,

I live a life without breathing


***


I have died and lived

by the sword,

across so many lifetimes.


I visualized the sword

as my identity,

as a way to end problems,

enemies, hurt, injustice


but in the end

the outcome was me

turning me into an object.


***


A body that's here,

a spirit that's enthralled

by ice-cold steel

running through my linea alba.

I feel my back curved against the couch

I feel the sword cracking open on my abdomen.


***


My mind, clear, runs

through multiple scenarios

of my last strife.


In one of them,

my spirit leaves my body

and that was relief.


***


***


My spirit watches my body,


holding onto the steel

that has separated us.



If I don’t do anything,

if I let myself go


my XXI Century body feels like

a panic attack, sunken and defeated.

***


I have a choice

I force my spirit back into my arms

and into my cleaved chest,

and I pull the sword out.


Half-dead,

half-standing,


I stare into the eyes

of hate.


I know this choice.

It ends with me ending those

who hurt me, a powerless revenge,

a self without meaning.

***


I have a choice


I have a choice to not

live life as a sword


***


I drop the sword

and everything reforms,



I'm not an armor,

I'm flesh that is crying

and releasing,


finally breaking

this aspect of my samsara

***

Epitaph

Life won't be defined by

the pain I know


but by that which I don't know.


I will no longer

hold the pulse of existence

like a gun against my throat.


I will learn to speak

so we can touch

when we are alone

and helpless



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