"Bereft of Beauty"

Jason Cole Magnon

­"Bereft of Beauty"

Rushed superfluous, hurried and shaken. 

I am bereft. What is left of beauty?

Clothed in shame and then: forsaken. 

Deeply entranced in this masquerading, 

We run wielding shields of timidity,

Rushed superfluous, hurried and shaken. 

Hold to the self, the I that is Me.

Any gift given may still be taken.

I am bereft. What is left of beauty? 

What some call living, I call escaping.

They want hope, I see chaos ensuing:

Rushed superfluous, hurried and shaken.

           

My God, you, omniscient and forsaking,

Impart your grace, be imbued into me…

I am bereft, What is left of beauty?

There are still more night’s to pass until I

Awake in this dream of time’s elapsing.

Rushed superfluous, hurried and shaken,

I am bereft. What is left of beauty?

[*A villanelle to honor and question life's ebbs and flows: the persistence of loss that we all experience]