A Pale View

by Akhim Alexis

 Artem Zhyzhyn

There are evils and there are misfortunes, Lately it’s been hard to distinguish between the two Like comprehending a code with no numbers Just signs, landmarks of dilapidated thoughts. My mind has become nebula Causing all concepts of happiness to become stuck In traffic — blurred vision.

When you’re as young as the night You’re allowed many faces, One for your lover and the others for those who are yet to be loved “In France they say everyday love puts on a new face”

Everywhere else love is faceless, that way it becomes As unfamiliar as an alien in the kitchen sink, Why bother protesting war when love is illegal?

I lead my life like a lead balloon And I, General, offer no apologies to the Soldiers Of my heart, what a waste that will be When the traffic of my mind eases up and I pump The gas just to crash into unforeseen circumstances, Like running down the street with the sun in your eyes. No one helps the hysterical until the episode ends.

To really know me is to have had me at dusk of a summer evening, When the sun barely filters down And my face is yet to be fragmented And love is liberated by the silhouette of the trees As light caresses its trunk, signaling the fall of my walls Allowing the prisoner of passion to be set free From my nebula of self-sabotage.

I am as much an obit for endearment As I am a henchman for hope. I would hate to bet my hope on the health of my mind As much as I’d hate to have my mind left to the tenderness Of a stranger who I’ve met at a bar on a Sunday. But to endure life in all its sweet misfortune Is as evil as love can get when you’re at peace with being in pieces.

---

Akhim Alexis is a writer born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. He is currently pursuing an MA in Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. His work has appeared in journals and magazines, such as Human/Kind Journal , The McNeese Review, Finished Creatures, Capsule Stories and The Caribbean Writer.