Ripe for the Harvest by Evan Inman

Ripe for the Harvest

by Evan Inman

I.

I still live here

You'd think that after ten years

of fighting emptiness

I would've had enough

But, for some reason, I have not

I want to move away

I can't

I'm too scared

No, it's more than that

I like it here

Right in the

country of never ending plains

A ridge to the west, that, I hate

I am alone right here

An island

In these plains

Not just physically

I cut all ties

Long ago, I found

them very tiresome,

so now I'm alone

But were they ever real, or dreamt?

I just can't remember,

I can't

remember

It has been to long

I just don't know

It's not long enough

I have been living each moment in its time,

while hoping for some other time

II.

Lately,

I've noticed

that something is different

Something is wrong

It's been coming for some time now

I've been feeling it

Deep inside my bones

Slowly it moves

and slowly it conquers

Slowly it rolls,

and slowly it makes itself known

From day to day

no difference is shown

From year to year

only I can know

So very slow,

almost imperceptibly so

No one has a clue

I'm sure, I've asked

They just don't know,

Having been here

But a few years

They couldn't have noticed

Not like me,

Not like me, I've been here long enough

I've noticed the change

Lately, anyway

III.

The difference is in the air

Can you taste the air?

I can

I am

It tastes funny

Not like it should

Can it taste the dark?

Can it?

It does

Each day, darker than the last

Tasting both sweet and foul

Not believable

When compared with what it was

With what I think was

I think it was once sweet

The taste of harmony

The taste of purity

With frequent breezes of silence

Breezes so clean and cool

A breeze of simplicity and perfection

A breeze of simplicity and perfection

A breeze affixed in my mind

That is the difference in the air...

I think

IV.

Now it comes on

Over the ridge

And on from the west

I wanted to leave

To run far away

But I couldn't

No, I didn't

It appeared as a tornado

A twister of mammoth proportions

Taller than they sky

Wider than the horizon

And I desired it

To tempt my fate?

To have some fun?

To hold the storm in the

palm of my hand,

And it came on,

And it came on, But I was ready

I could face it alone

Then it was here.

V.

Flowing, blowing, rolling

A heavy fog that blocks out the sun

Always advancing, but never ending

An unstoppable force

Flowing though the holes in my faith

Blowing across my barren mind

Rolling over my life

An unrelenting oppression

With no purpose other than sorrow

And I am helpless against it