Sweet Tyranny
Illustration by Anahita S
When Love corrodes the hearts of men,
Nothing stands in her way,
She haunts the man in his dreams,
At his life, she eats away.
With her cape of hope and joy,
She steals man’s innocence,
Never does she fail in her ploy,
To kill all effervescence.
Men give her forms pristine and fair,
Embellishing her, yet,
Love from her godforsaken lair
Mocks at man, her puppet.
A friend is now an enemy,
Shot by love’s poison dart
All happiness ceases to be
Sorrow engulfs the heart.
The aim of life that once was clear,
Fades into a misty haze,
The mind, body and soul so dear,
Set this cherished dream ablaze.
They turn toward his feeble hope,
Fading, besotted, he stands
And if he should succeed or not,
Love the impossible demands.
She asks of him all things he loves,
She robs from him herself,
She turns him ‘to a smitten fool,
Once a god, he becomes an elf.
Over things he once held command,
She casts a translucent veil,
And tears them all away from him
While he smiles, ever dumb and pale.
Man may rejoice if he be caught
Forever in her charming snare,
Then nought but death can wring him out
Of this labyrinth dark and fair.
But if he sees the iron claws
Clutching his very nail and hair,
He loses all his earthly wealth,
With only some wisdom to spare.
Men seek Love with their mortal hands,
That seeps away like water in sunburnt sands.
The ignorant man says he is lovelorn,
The wise men know that Love is a thorn.
And yet Love is the very ladder
That the men of yore seized
To ascend those distant heavens
That, mortal men think, have ceased.
Only when this tyrant is subdued,
And turned toward omnipotent God,
That her true puissance is unleashed
To adorn this sordid earth.