Searching for Beauty in the Hollow of the World / Zeta Ferrer
He held the most beautiful thing
between his unsure fingers,
a pattern of rainbow ocean waves
swirling over an iridescent shell.
Ear pressed to it, the world, he heard it amplified.
The colours soothed him as he held it up
high to the sun, watching them
caress the snail-like surface.
And he felt the sudden urge to drop it.
What if his most treasured possession was his no more?
He yearned for something more beautiful.
There was a hummingbird’s egg –
He’s never held onto heartbeat so fragile.
Cocooned inside in the dark,
he pictured himself newborn,
held in the warm love of a soon emerging life,
Hidden amidst leaves and branches
in a nest not much bigger than a coin.
But that, too, was fine and good,
yet he felt the urge to let it go also.
His egg will hatch and grow into a bird
and what then? He will fly
for but a moment before
life passes and lets him go.
He wanted something truly beautiful to admire,
so he sought hundreds of books
from the library of the human mind.
An equal measure of comfort and displeasure,
it was beautifully grotesque
yet rimmed with golden kindness.
Turbulent, swaying, and yet,
when he emerged it was into a waveless ocean
floating to the sensation of being washed ashore,
safe in the embrace of the sun.
He remembered the shell all of a sudden
and sought it for a time once more.
Then the egg, and found the bird hatched,
its mother nursing it as he from afar watched.
He was left with the human thoughts,
imperfect beauty, and nevertheless,
He rolled them between his fingers,
felt them soft and malleable, prone to change
with every touch of his thumb.
He wanted to make them beautiful
and keep them this time.
Thank you for reading 💛
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A very touching poem 😊