I should have been immortal

One of his oldest (and most respected) works. Some of the turns of phrase are extremely nuanced for a poem written by an 18 year old.


I should have been immortal

lying in fields of orchids, I dream of roses.
there is not...there will not be...
there can not be enough time to taste
all the wines. I should have been immortal.

the wind blows warm when I crave the ice.
the pie is cut. but I want no slice
of it...yet the cake I need
has been served all around.

I have sailed the sun and touched the moon and
fallen to earth in death's calling...but where
are the ancients...I must know. I will go to see
their tombs...for I am too late
(or they passed too soon).
their's will be my destiny, too...to dream
of fires that shall not burn in my earthtime...
to carve my name on a sapling and not live to see
the process spread my words to gargantuan proportions...

yet, security beckons. there is
a sort of pleasure in knowing that
death waits around a farther hill, and that
you will be blessed by its frostbound visitation.

but I should have been. I could have been. I would
have been immortal. there just isn't enough
time for the roses.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.