I heard a wretched beast’s wounded cry

Sound again and again outside;
Hoarse and heartbroken.
It cursed the ill-fated stars and the ominous moon,
And I,
Pitying its sorrow yet wary
Of the broken tranquil silence,
Gazed through the dusty windows but
Only saw the void of pitch darkness.

The heavy pen weighed down
Upon my sore hand
As I struggled to lift it above the feathery parchment.
Under the faint glow of my feeble lamplight
That struggled to keep at bay
The engulfing shroud of darkness
That has swallowed even the high noon
In the blood soaked sunset.
And now it is the menace to
My solitary refuge -
The last frontier of peace,
Like Pandora’s box where Elpis fluttered faintly
While the fatal evils roamed, raging,
Across the fallen realm of man.

Oh! Imbecile!
I, whose meager endeavors fail
In every attempt, with everything.
The deepest corners of my soul burned,
Yearned, as my dark ambitions
Take on the merciless fists of rejection
That ruthlessly delivered blow after blow,
Making it morph into the horrid face of desolation
That cries at the laughing night sky
Of its misfortunes that scarred its esteem.

My soul spoke of hopelessness.

And then my faint cries turned to furious roars,
Roars that no one cared to hear.
The fiery flames of desolation burned inside me
Until I tore down my quiet refuge;
Until I threw away my pen, which vanished into darkness;
Until I brought down my fist;
Until I crumpled the feathery parchment;
Until the feeble breath of the only illumination
In the void of darkness
Snuffed out.

But a spark of light remained,
Dancing in the midst of swirling darkness,
And it landed on that cool, ornate jar
Where Elpis dwelled.
And the spirit whispered -
“Never despair over petty failures,
For there is one spark of light that
Will never fade,
For I am always with you.
You are not defeated by
What you cannot do.
You are chained by
Who you are
Because you were born in the world of
Lust, greed, ignorance.
Dispel the shadows of evil,
And from your ephemeral refuge of peace
Shall emerge the eternal kingdom of joy.”

Upon these words, my soul calmed and rejoiced.
I turned on my lamp,
And the spontaneous illumination
Flooded the cold, desolate void.
I picked up my pen and paper,
And with a flourish,
Bold strokes at the top of the page spelled
A hopeful word -

Elpis.