reworked: Bowed Reign

Bowed Reign
Mars-ilani’s symbol is either
A) a horseshoe,
B) a three-colored rainbow, or
C) the embrace of a community.
Take your pick.

I was born and raised in Mars-ilani,
and, like the fruit of a tired tree,
fell and returned here,
laying roots in its rusty soil.

Now, when I look upon Mililani’s symbol, I see
D) None of the Above.

I see, instead, the inevitable arc
of middle class life.

For if a rainbow,
it is on the verge of
collapsing in on itself,
teetering unsteady on
one invisible pot of gold.

And if a horseshoe,
then it’s a horseshoe magnet,
drawing the iron luck in my blood back
to join the rust of its soil.

If an embrace,
then it holds me like
an umbilical culdesac noose.

I am None
of the above.
I came from below,
And like Icarus
(before my spectacular return),
spent but a moment in the sky.
The ego dreams mastery,
But that’s all.
And when the pretend reign ends,
All that’s left behind is
The symbol of a promise
And the shape of its fulfillment:
bowed and asymptotic.