Readdressing Rarities

A fond face,

A disgrace.

Quite the oxymoronic state.

The things that can be two, but in one, are the rarest of rarities

• For me at least.

I wrote down my list, as I always did, to keep my mind from breaking:

1.) Take the bouquet to Lake Tahoe, and immerse it into forever

2.) Grab the Golden Gate by the neck, and say “baby, never”

3.) Reinvent the wheel in an artistic way, or at least try

And 4.) Don’t die.

So, I did as I had programmed... in this burnt-out mind of mine.

You may ask, why the flower drowning?

Well, I learned from a good friend that in order to bring out

The best in someone, you have to undergo fire and brimstone.

So I thought I could apply that philosophy to inanimate beings...

Like flowers - and I was going to make a perfume.

I had never done so, but the things that are done the first time

Around are bound to bring out results. Be it success or knowledge.

So I did. I took a mason jar and went down to gorgeous Tahoe,

Distilled some essential oils, and was left with an aromatic

Balsam base.

I took my gardenias and peonies and extracted them like oranges –

And the fragrance was floral heaven.

I bathed in my concoction and felt more alive than ever,

It was a purification, or a baptism-like experience.

So I took one final breath of Tahoe’s vast verdancy –

And basked in the feeling of foreverness.

Next, it was time for number “2.”

This was going to be more of a symbolic trip,

And it was going to be the turning point of my future.

The Golden Gate beckons many hopeless travelers,

And in a time of my life, I was as susceptible as any other.

As the taxi driver trundled onto the busy bridge,

I did something ludicrous but needed:

I swung open the backseat door and sprinted to the edge

Of the red fiery bridge.

I think ten cars all beeped at me at once,

But I leaned on the brink of the railings and told the

Stow Lake below me: “Baby, never…

“ever, ever, ever...will I fall into the hands of depression again”

After that I gracefully bounced across the hectic road back

To my taxi and slammed the door shut.

The driver looked at me with a face of indifference and didn’t seem

Too shocked. Perhaps he’d done the same as me once.

But nevertheless, I did the third thing on my list.

I was going to revolutionize the arts, and I planned on doing that

Through poetry.

The taxi dropped me off at a local school of the creative arts

And I began to studiously hear the professor’s every word.

He said that “a poet’s job is to witness.”

And that “one cannot begin to write...if one has not beheld the

rarities of the world.”

Then that one word, “rarity,” stood out to me.

Because for me, there’s nothing more precious than

Being two things at once.

A hybrid of sorts, like the way Yin and Yang mimic their inner beauty.

And we were asked to give writing a shot,

No prompt, no example.

But just the pure essence of who we were.

And I remembered the essence of the perfume,

I had realized that everything I had done today was interconnected.

It was a way of shedding my past and accepting

That I will never be enough for some, and surplus for others.

So, I welcomed that notion, and didn’t allow anything to shake me.

It was the awakening of a soul.