mayhaps

Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect

I'd sing a serenade to a silver moon
But something's got my tongue and I don't think it's the cat

I used to think it was probably a man
Who had come in the night and stayed on
But only in my mind
A game I played
Hoping for the sympathetic magic
Of life imitating wishes

Cause and effect eschews my world view
Like a rocket at escape velocity
Orbiting, I see the oceans and masses of land
And if I zoom in from my lofty eyrie,
I might catch a glimpse of my own brown head
Or at least the tarred roof of the building
In which I've gone to ground

When does this thing turn around
This darkness that shows itself at moments of greatest hope
That waits around the corner of every alley
Like a cut-purse
If to move forward was my currency
If to believe in the fulfillment of potential was as good as gold
In this uncertain world

I need the argent light of that moon
To light the back corners of my mind
To shine into the dark reaches of space
And lead my expectations back to earth
Not to dash them to the ground at terminal velocity
Burned and blackened from re-entry
But unite them at last
With me

For all my actions
For all the actions of the world
There is a response
This is cause and effect
If I get slapped down more than I like
Maybe it's not just bad luck
But a byproduct of the fact I try at all

I have tried to be an alchemist
A sorceress
A witch
But the causes that lie within my grasp to initiate
Have failed to register in my sweeping gaze
Have been too small to show themselves from space
Like the single motion that initiates an avalanche
Or deeply hidden
Like the submarine tremor
That launches a tsunami

And for this
My mind is clouded
My silver moon is shrouded
Only its nimbus shimmers in the haze far above
And I see no stars at all

Remember the butterfly in Tokyo
I must sing
And more important
Remember the strength of my own two hands
Not imbued with magical power
But with sinew and muscle and will
I'll compose a serenade to my own expectation
To join me at this moment in time
And follow this road with good intent
With firm conviction
With love and with passion
Until I learn what effect this cause has wrought