Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Oscar Wilde, Irish Poet and Playwright

. . .

A certain silence spoke a river,

That rampantly rid Reason of her dam.

The messenger, Flood, would soon deliver

A message to drown self-deluding sham.

.

The streams of Reason had quit their flow,

And settled behind, an embankment large.

The messenger, Flood, dealt a damaging blow!

The damned dam gave way to Reason’s charge.

.

The messenger, Flood, did me apprise,

With the most unforeseen piece of news.

“You did away with the peace you prize!

When asked to make a choice, you failed to choose!”

.

“O Flood, baseless allegations you pronounce!

At present to converse with you, I choose!

I do so your stricture to denounce,

Begone Flood! Lest my mind I lose!”

.

Flood however, stood her ground,

Silence’s message she bravely bore:

“The clamour of comrades around,

Has thieved you of your very core!”

.

On Streams of Reason, I began to row,

Nestled in thought’s vessel robust.

“Once my essence dies, I am no more!

Though body be alive, the soul turns to dust!”

.

Flood, the messenger, my mind restored.

I knew now, what had to be done.

I would become the person I had once adored.

In that silence, on who I am, Flood shone the sun.

. . .

Granville D. Austin