Page 191 - Cascade I SHPS School Magazine 2024

Fell, fell, and fell down the fall for its fervour to flicker.
Voices of vehement scorns call out from the bottom.
A lowly cipher: they quoth and thrash!
Its frail and mellow scales shed in that day of autumn
Where its heart descended into frost eternal.
In the quest for laud, did the carp warp…
Emerged from the crucible, refined and reborn,
Fractured faith and shadowed vows.
The fish swims against the shadows to fade, having sworn
To enter the penumbra of polarities.

Will it silence, will it grieve?
Will it plunge into the harbour of htared, ablaze with flame?!
The Dragon of the Gate watches from above
Once its brother who yearned to be the same,
Who now earned envy’s embrace and the devotion of darkness.

As dreams fade and edge into the twilight,
The dragon breaks free from the citadels of celestial glow,
The tears from its blue eyes bashing the banks.
Fluttering ferociously at its fate and enshrouded by mist and snow,
It flows down the fall to where the darkness mystifies.

The two souls collided, one ebony and one ivory;
A duel between black and white!
Howbeit for the dragon, it seemed as if spun of ethereal grey.
Doubts are cast on the fish cloaked in the veil of the night
‘Is this deemed correct?’ and ‘For whose sake?’

In its plight, a formidable duel unfurls,
Where its soul contends, escaping twilight’s hands,
Yearning to redeem and revive,
A celestial rebirth ritualised by the storm’s strands,
And in the Yellow River’s embrace, dance as a carp once more!

Howbeit for the dragon, twain were its strife:
One with its kin yet another with its being.
For the one who chased power, now surrenders to Old Fate.
The dragon swims against the current to ravage its regrets unwavering
And become a carp of the Yellow River once more…

Cascade 191