Life Is Never What It Seems Poem by Edmund Calleja

When life throws everything at you and you think
that you can finally handle it,
then you die. E.J. Calleja


The tragedy of life is that
nothing is as it appears,
just as benevolent reproaches
that are meant to soothe your fears.

Artistic creations that convey
the balm to my quivering soul,
somnambulistic reveries
that pacify and console.

Poetic interludes to lull
my humiliating squalidness,
ornamental words that linger
in my cadaverous weariness.

Deluding myself with divine wine
that transcends spiritual emotions,
stagnant pulsations that linger
in fading amorous devotions.

Loneliness that creeps ostensibly
to balance venerable illusions,
to curse and swear just like a charlatan
amid remnants of delusions.

The slow meditative life
masquerading a half borne smile,
behind carnivalesque masks that
I wear nonchalantly and in style.

Nothing bears out in practice
what it promises so ardently,
incipient romantic encounters
once loved and adored fervently.

The evening glow relinquishes
the sun shining through the boughs,
supping mildew from their leaves
while vermillion sunset my soul endows.

Real life and stark reality
where life is never what it seems,
a bizarre world of thought
of hallucinations and of dreams.


March 2011