Galley Slaves

With the hubris of some making staying afloat for the majority well near impossible, what does one do without their imagination?

Galley Slaves
             by Odin Roark

Lean… Pull!
Lean… Pull!
Thwack!

Rowers depleted of will
Endure more
Gain less
Succumb to forward’s delusion
Hold tight imagination
As only friend

Such is time’s living painting
A species-made phantom ship
Borne in swamp mist by night
Battered with history’s wake by day
Evolved by ratcheted violence
Surviving only by fury’s frenzy

Lean… Pull!
Lean… Pull!
Thwack!

Sweat laden creatures of toil
Cry out primal entreaties
As mind-flogging rage
Infects their open-heart forgiveness

Dwarfed spirits reach out
Pleading imagination’s potency
To alert magic’s Geppetto in the sky
To lift them up
To make their backs straight again
To heal their doubts and fears
To make them alive
Even if only in their imagination

Lean… Pull!
Lean… Pull!
Thwack!