April 9, 2011

The Forest in a Bottle

I found the strangest thing just yesterday
While passing by the fields of russet hay,
For lying half exposed in meadow grass
My eyes beheld a forest trapped in glass!

A bottle, crystal bright, and just as clear
As if a jewel from Asgard's chandelier.
I marveled as a sunbeam struck its skin
And sparkling light revealed the world within.

A forest fully grown, and yet so small,
Inhabiting carafe from wall to wall.
I brought it to my eye to better see
The detail in each pulsing, living tree.

There, pathways formed by creatures of the brake
Ran through the woods down to a hidden lake.
While far beyond, vast mountains rose like horns
Round valleys of fay roses crowned by thorns.

The scene enchanted me and so I gazed
As oceans crashed where diamond cliffs were raised.
For all this land and sky and sea obeyed,
Some covenant of ancient magic made.

Longer still, I looked, and more I saw.
For here, the forest followed just one law:
The man who peers into the mystic flask
Will there discern his soul in Gaia's mask.

Yet I was not content to merely gaze
And tearing out the cork in reckless craze
Appeased the passion just to have a taste
Of everything this slender glass encased.

Beneath its spell, I raised it to my lips
To swallow all the world in an eclipse,
But that was my unpardonable sin;
It swallowed me, and now I'm trapped within.

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