Nepenthe

I found myself at low ebb.

Life held no promise.

A future void of hope.

My past, littered with wreckage

I had no energy to revisit

Only to find nothing there to find.

Grief infused my days and populated my dreams.

~

Then I found Nepenthe, the deeply satisfying, rich and flavorful,

Legendary elixir.

Or did it find me?

One small draught erased the sorrow, which would not wither.

Nepenthe quenches that undying thirst so

Even the concept of ‘thirst,’ becomes strange,

Unrecognizable and beyond explanation.

As if one could explain breath, without breath.

All the un-sated appetites,

And un-vanquished memories,

Clung to, ’til the moment the cup touched my lip,

Washed away by Nepenthe streaming down my throat.

As if reborn,

I became fresh, whole and never again to yearn for what cannot be.

~

A long time friend knocked.

But I was not whom he sought.

Owning his envy that he did not know her first,

He asked for a woman, saying she was mine,

And I, his only connection to her.

The thought of her drifted through his memory,

Driven by unknown currents and a fickle wind.

~

He told me my words for her:

“Nectar sweet breath.

Cascading hair.

Her translucent skin to satin, as satin is to sack cloth,

Approaching, her walk a willow’s sway,

Her poetry, lithe as the supplest limb,

Flashing eyes, a summer squall and delicious, charged anticipation,

Those witty eyes shared silent jokes and knowing glances,

Her smile lifted your care darkened heart, with one glimpse, to joy,

Gentle and contagious, her musical laugh, dizzying as glasses of fine wine.

Even the dregs were sweet.”

He said I told him once, our love was a dance above the clouds.

Her touch sent me soaring on a swallow’s wings.

She trembled in my arms like a captive bird.

~

He was going away and humbly asked to speak with her again.

I said, “You are wrong.

You imagine this woman.

I know no one like this.

There is no one.

But, before you leave, would you sip from my bottle of Nepenthe?”