By Eitan Perlin
Caramel visions of lazy days dance,
Sending spools of honeyed sun down my spine.
The room dulls to beige, but though fantasies melt,
The faint wisp of a smile remains.
In newfound stillness, my mind sets to wander,
To a thicket of overgrown thoughts.
The path is all torn, but nothing has changed,
And I’m forcefully drawn to the dark.
Play in the past when today can’t be suffered,
Toy soldiers will win over war.
As days disappear, and those left dwindle,
The worst are most vibrant and real.
Obliviate regrets, don’t risk retaining,
Toss them like rags in the sink.
Or wring them dry, and savor the water
To quench parched wisdom’s lips.
When children are given years too few,
Care to not wallow in mire
The figure is fixed, Time’s made its decision,
To steal seconds is strictly forbidden.
Fighting won’t work, though many have tried,
The hourglass grains have ended.
Numbers may vary, but the state’s the same,
All the sand fell down and drained.
Impotent will, it always seems lacking,
Too weak to make even a dent.
At times it feels crushing, to be so fragile,
uncertainty guides unrelenting,
The smile long gone, a blank slate stares,
Looking forward while vacant inside.
My swarm of low spirits flock to the light,
And obscure any bulbs from vision.
Now the beige is all black and the rooms become heavy,
I frantically search for the door.
But, a pinprick of hope stabs through the muck,
The caramel scent of summer
Eitan Perlin studies Mathematics and Philosophy at Penn State Main Campus. He’s new to poetry because like many people, he picked it up as something to do in quarantine. Eitan has always been a singer, so he also started learning guitar and writing music. In his free time, he tries to play DND, but when the schedules of five plus college students don’t align—which is most of the time—he gets his fantasy fix from video games.